LIFE 


CAPTAIN  NATHAN  HALE 


BY   I.  W.  STUART. 
M 

,  fofcilt  fonlbf  Tiriut  totsf).eJ&  in  bain  to 
,  irijgfjt  an&  cjmrous,  founir  a 
'  Itbtitcj  flamt  fjts  io^om 
un&  f)tm  to  fjtr  .stof 

2Hortf)'j5  fair  patfj  ijis  f^ti  sbtaniuttfc  far, 
e  jirtlrt  of  |^acc,  tfji  rising  fjop^  of  (Sltar ; 
llutg  firm,  in  Jjanjjtr  ^alm  as  tbcn — 
fritnlrs  uiuljan^ina,  anlj  stncm  io  J^taBin. 
s^ort  ^ts  tourjji,  i^t  prt^t  fioto  jeatlj)  toon, 
mourns  fyer 

PBES.  DWWHT. 


WITH    1 1.  L  U  S  T  K  A  i'  I  0  N  S  . 

HARTFORD: 

P  U  B  L  I  S  H  E  I)    BY    F  .    A  .    B  K  O  \V  X 
1856. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1855,  by 

F.  A.   BROWN, 
in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  Connecticut. 


iyES^  OF  £A§E,rTIFFANY   AND, COMPANY, 


DEDICATED 

TO 

COLONEL  CHARLES  J.  BUSS 

IN  MARK  OF  REGARD 

FOR 

HIS  VALUABLE  ENCOURAGEMENT  OF  THE  WORK 

AND  IN  TOKEN 

OP 

PERSONAL  FRIENDSHIP. 


292026 


PREFACE. 

"I  DO  think  it  hard,"  wrote  Stephen  Hempstcad,  the  friend 
and  companion  of  the  subject  of  the  following  Memoir,  "that 
HALE,  who  was  equally  brave,  young,  accomplished,  learned 
and  honorable — should  be  forgotten  on  the  very  threshold  of 
his  fame,  even  by  his  countrymen ;  that  while  our  own  histo 
rians  have  done  honor  to  the  memory  of  Andre,  Hale  should 
be  unknown  ;  that  while  the  remains  of  the  former  have  been 
honored  even  by  our  own  countrymen,  those  of  the  latter  should 
rest  among  the  clods  of  the  valley,  undistinguished,  unsought, 
and  unknown." 

Most  fully  do  we  accord  in  sentiment  with  the  patriotic  re. 
monstrant  just  quoted.  It  is  indeed  '  hard/  that  a  spirit  exalted 
as  was  that  of  Captain  Nathan  Hale — that  a  life  and  conduct 
like  his  own,  so  pure,  so  heroic,  so  disinterested,  and  so  crowned 
by  an  act  of  martyrdom  one  of  the  most  galling  and  valiant 
on  record — should  not  have  been  fitly  commemorated,  hitherto, 
either  by  the  pen  of  history  or  of  biography.  His  '  remains  ' — the 
dust  and  ashes  of  his  body — of  these  no  one  can  tell  the  place 


ii  PREFACE. 

of  interment.  For  aught  that  any  exploration  can  reveal,  they 
may  be  now 

"  imprisoned  in  the  viewless  winds, 
And  blown  with  restless  violence  about 
The  pendent  world — " 

though,  it  is  certain,  they  were  first  deposited  somewhere  within 
the  circuit  of  the  Empire-City  of  the  Union — and  thousands  of 
gay-hearted  mortals,  at  the  present  moment,  daily  and  hourly, 
walk  probably  over  the  spot,  'not  knowing  where  they  tread ' — 
and  none  can  ever  know  until  the  Grave  gives  up  its  dead. 

But  this  fact  by  no  means  excuses  the  silence  of  history  about 
the  youthful  hero.  Marshall,  Ramsay,  Gordon,  Butler,  Botta — 
not  one  word,  have  they  to  say  concerning  him.  Bancroft  has 
not  yet  reached  him.  Hannah  Adams  just  mentions  him.  Popu 
lar  school  histories  merely  allude  to  his  fate.  A  brief  sketch  of 
him  by  the  late  J.  S.  Bahcock,  an  author  of  Hale's  native  town, 
which  is  beauteous  for  the  spirit  in  which  it  is  written,  but  is 
comparatively  barren  of  facts — meagre  notices  of  him  in  Allen's 
Biographical  Dictionary,  in  Pease  and  Niles'  Gazcteer,  and  in 
Holmes'  Annals — an  Address  before  the  Hale  Monument  Asso 
ciation  by  the  late  Hon.  A.  T.  Jndson,  which  embodies  touch 
ing  comment  on  Hale's  character,  and  the  closing  acts  of  his 
career,  but  which  does  not  assume  to  give  the  details  of  his 
life_thcse,  and  a  succinct  talc  which  appeared  in  the  New  York 
Sunday  Times  several  years  ago,  together  with  a  few  paragraphs 
in  Sparks'  Life  of  Andre,  and  a  few  more  in  Thompson's  His 
tory  of  Long  Island — constitute,  so  far  a.s  we  can  ascertain,  all 
that  has  been  done  in  the  way  of  biographical  contribution  to 


PREFACE.  ili 

his  memory.  And  as  for  notices  of  him,  of  any  importance, 
the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic — such  of  course  we  should  hardly 
expect — nor  arc  there  any,  we  think  it  may  be  safely  affirmed. 
In  this  dearth  of  memoir  with  regard  to  Hale — feeling  that 
his  life  signally  deserved  an  effort  for  its  exhibition — we  began 
to  look  for  materials  for  the  purpose.  We  consulted  docu 
ments  of  every  kind,  within  our  reach,  that  might  by  possibil 
ity  contain  them— and  jotted  down,  one  after  another,  each  item 
that  we  thought  relevant  and  true.  Fortunately  we  procured 
Kale's  own  Camp-Book — in  which,  for  some  time,  he  kept  a 
diary.  We  succeeded  in  obtaining  some  of  his  correspondence — 
a  few  letters  from  his  own  pen,  and  quite  a  number  addressed 
to  him  by  others.  We  garnered  the  statements  concerning  him 

made  by  his  own  faithful  attendant  in  camp,  Asher  Wright 

and  those  also  of  Stephen  Hempstead,  that  confidential  soldier 
in  his  company  to  whom  we  have  already  referred,  and  who 
was  Kale's  companion,  for  a  portion  of  the  time,  on  his  last  fatal 
expedition.  We  consulted  also  many  aged  persons,  in  different 

places — several  who  were  personally  acquainted  with   Hale 

and  among  these  last,  particularly,  the  lady  to  whom  Hale  was 
betrothed,  and  the  venerable  Colonel  SAMUEL  GREEN,  who, 
at  New  London,  was  a  pupil  of  Kale's,  and  remembered  him, 
and  miny  interesting  facts  concerning-  him,  perfectlv.  We 
made  many  inquiries  of  Kale's  relatives,  near  and  remote,  end 
among  these,  particularly,  of  two  of  his  grand-nephews,  CHAUN- 
CEY  HOWARD  Esquire  of  Hartford,  Connecticut,  and  Rev. 
EDWARD  E.  H.VLK  of  Worcester,  Massachusetts,  to  each  of 
whom  we  are  indebted  for  much  and  valuable  information.  J. 
1 


IV  PREFACE. 

W.  BOYNTON  Inquire  also,  of  Coventry,  the  Secretary  of  the 
Hale  Monument  Association — Hon.  HENRY  C.  DEMIXG,  and 
GEORGE  BRINLEY  Jr.,  Esquire,  of  Hartford — Hon.  H.  E. 
PECK,  of  New  Haven— the  Rev.  Dr.  SPRAGDE,  of  Alhany, 
New  York — Hon.  JAMES  W.  BEEKMAN,  of  New  York  City — 
the  late  venerable  Gen.  JEREMIAH  JOHNSON,  of  Brooklyn, 
Long  Island— and  especially  HENRY  ONDKRDONK  Jr.,  Esquire, 
of  Jamaica,  Long  Island,  author  of  the  "Revolutionary 
Sketches  of  Queens  County  " — most  politely  added  to  our  stores. 

We  procured  also  affidavits,  or  well-authenticated  statements, 
from  various  persons  upon  Long  Island,  who  were  cotempora- 
ries  of  Hale,  and  conversant  with  his  fate — as  from  Robert 
Townsend,  a  farmer  of  Oyster  Bay,  who  heard  the  details  of 
his  capture  from  the  British  officer  who  seized  him,  Captain 
Quarme — from  Solomon  Wooden,  a  shipbuilder,  in  1776,  near 
the  place  of  Hale's  capture,  and  familiar  with  its  incidents — 
from  the  families  of  Jesse  Fleet  and  Samuel  Johnson,  who  lived 
at  Huntington,  East  Neck,  upon  the  very  spot  where  he  was 
made  a  prisoner — and  particularly  from  Andrew  liegeman, 
and  Tunis  Bogart,  honest  farmers,  who  during  the  Revolution 
were  impressed  from  Long  Island  as  waggoners  in  the  British 
service,  and  who  themselves  saw  Hale  executed.  We  had 
besides  in  our  possession  the  report  made  to  General  Hull  by 
an- officer  of  the  British  Commissariat  Department,  who  also 
saw  Hale  hung. 

Thus  furnished  with  materials — and  more  abundantly  than  at 
first  we  expected — we  began  to  prepare  the  present  volume. 
Yet  at  best— considering  how  much  really  there  must  have  been  in 


PREFACE.  V 

the  lite  and  diameter  of  Hale,  attractive  to  a  laudable  curiosity, 
that  like  the  dust  into  which  his  manly  frame  has  been  dissi 
pated,  must  lie  hidden  forever  from  our  knowledge — we  were 
but  poorly  equipped.  Many  things,  to  be  written  down,  it  is 
true,  were  plain — were  easy  of  arrangement,  an*  caused  no 
embarrassment  to  our  pen.  But  other  things  again,  worthy  of 
record,  were  wrapt  in  gloom.  There  were  points,  hitherto  in 
dispute,  to  be  settled.  There  were  points,  unknown  when  we 
commenced  our  labor,  to  be  developed  in  the  progress,  and  by 
the  process  of  examination.  Side  by  side  then,  or  stretched 
out  in  links  seemingly  incapable  of  connection,  we  placed  our 
various  materials — many  of  them  scraps  merely  of  information, 
atomic,  insulated,  and  wholly  unpromising  of  results.  Com 
parison  and  contrast  gradually  shed  light  upon  them.  They 
grew  related.  They  knit  together.  Little  family  groups  of 
affiliated  facts  and  conclusions  started  up  from  their  midst,  and 
ever  and  anon,  as  new  and  pleasant  merchandise,  aided  to  load 
up  the  train  of  our  biography. 

So  we  proceeded,  on  to  our  journey's  end — slowly — but  sure 
ly,  we  would  fain  believe — with  all  the  certainty  that  could 
attend  our  steps,  and  where  it  did  not,  certain  of  our  uncertain 
ty.  We  have  at  last,  consequently,  cut  a  road  for  all  who  wish 
ro  travel  over  the  life  of  Hale — not  a  long  one  to  those  who 
may  pursue  it — nor  tedious,  we  fain  would  trust.  We  have 
not.  it  will  be  observed,  set  up  thickly  along  in  its  course  the 
l>osts  of  authorities,  but  content  ourselves  with  erecting  one 
large  and  general  one  at  our  point  of  departure — here  in  this 
Preface — in  the  paragraphs  just  above.  Therewith  will  not 
every  traveller  in  our  track  be  satisfied  ?  We  trust  that  he  will. 


VI  PREFACE. 

Sonic  notes  he  will  find  by  the  way,  but  they  are  made,  chiefly,, 
to  illustrate  the  text — seldom  for  the  purpose  of  proving  its  gen 
uineness. 

A  Grnealoi/y  nf  the  Family  of  Xathan  JIalc,  now  for  the  first 
time  published,  will  also  be  found.  It  is  from  the  pen  of  a  gen 
tleman,  to  whom  we  have  already  alluded  as  one  of  the  grand- 
nephews  of  the  subject  of  this  Memoir — the  Rev.  EDWARD 
E.  HALE,  of  Worcester,  Massachusetts.  Prepared,  as  it  has 
been,  with  great  labor  of  research,  with  scrupulous  judgment, 
and  skill  of  arrangement,  it  forms  a  most  valuable  addition  to 
the  present  volume,  and  can  not  prove  otherwise  than  accepta 
ble,  to  all  especially  of  tlie  Jfa/c  blood.  Our  own  obligations  to> 
its  worthy  author  for  the  pains  he  has  taken  in  its  execution., 
and  for  its  gratuitous  use  in  our  pages,  are  deep  and  abiding. 

Pictorial  illustrations  also  the  Header  will  find — views,  first 
of  Kale's  Birth-Place — second,  of  Hale  and  his  brothers  play 
ing  the  forbidden  game  of  Morris — third  of  his  entering  New  York 
with  his  Prize  Sloop — fourth,  of  his  passing  in  disguise  within  the 
Camp  of  the  Enemy — fifth,  of  his  Capture — sixth,  of  his  march 
to  Execution — seventh,  of  his  Camp  Basket,  and  Camp  Book — 
eighth,  of  his  Monument — and  ninth,  of  Andre.  Save  the  first 
view,  which,  chiefly,  is  copied  from  one  by  J.  W.  Barber  Es. 
quire  in  his  "Historical  Collections  of  Connecticut,"  and  that 
of  the  Monument,  procured  originally  by  the  Secretary  of  the 
"Hale  Association,"  and  that  of  Andre,  from  a  copy  of  the 
one  in  the  Triinihiill  (Jallery  at  New  Haven— they  have  all  been 
designed  under  the  eye  of  the  author  of  this  work — in  the  first 
instance  for  his  own  gratification  simply — as  an  ornament  for 


PREFACE.  Vli 

his  parlor — and  without  reference  to  publication.  The  second 
owes  its  origin  to  the  skilful  pencil  of  Henry  Bryant,  artist,  of 
Hartford.  The  third  is  from  the  quick  and  ingenious  hand  of 
W.  M.  B.  Hartley  Esquire,  of  New  York.  The  rest  were 
designed  by  Joseph  Ropes,  a  highly  accomplished  artist,  also  of 
Hartford,  Connecticut.  They  have  all  been  copied  and  impress 
ed,  with  most  praiseworthy  care,  at  the  excellent  Lithographic 
Establishment  of  E.  B.,  and  E.  C.  Kellogg,  also  of  Hartford. 

That  his  labor  may  prove  grateful,  and  instruct  the  patriot 
ism  of  the  Reader,  and  move  his  noblest  sensibilities  in  behalf 
of  one, 

••  The  pride  of  Peace,  the  rising  hope  of  War," 

who,  in  a  crisis  of  danger  the  most  appalling,  gave  up  youth, 
hope,  ambition,  love,  life,  all,  for  his  native  land,  is  the  fervent 
wish  of  the  author  of  the  following  pages.  Through  these, 
NATHAN  HALE,  the  illustrious  MARTYR-SPY  OF  THE  AMERI 
CAN  REVOLUTION,  asks  to  be  remembered  by  his  countrymen. 

I.  W    STUART. 
CHARTER  OAK  PLACE, 

Xov.  30th,  1855. 


COX TENTS. 

CHAP.  I. 

Page. 

KALE'S  birth,  family,  and  birth  place.  His  early  training. 
He  prepares  for  College.  He  enters  Yale.  His  career 
in  College.  He  graduates,  and  takes  a  school  in  East 
Haddam,  Conn.  His  occupations  there.  He  removes  to 
New  London,  and  continues  to  teach.  His  feelings  and 
ability  as  an  instructor.  The  manner  in  which  he  spent 
his  time.  His  correspondence.  His  personal  appear 
ance.  His  great  activity.  The  rich  promise  of  his  youth.  13 

CHAP.  II. 

The  Lexington  Alarm.  Hale  gives  up  his  school,  and 
joins  the  army  as  a  volunteer.  His  motives  in  doing  so- 
Is  stationed  for  :«  while  at  New  London.  Leaves  for 
Boston.  The  prospect  before  him.  Joins  the  brigade 
of  Gen.  Sullivan.  His  life  for  six  months  in  the  Camp 
around  Boston.  His  skill  in  military  discipline — his 
studies — his  amusements — with  extracts  from  his  Diary.  35 


CONTKNTS. 


CHAT.   III. 

Page. 

Hale  leases  tin-  vicinity  of  Boston  for  Xew  Vork.  His 
gallant  capture  ol'  a  British  sloop  in  the  East  River. 
His  station,  occupation,  patriotism,  attachments,  and 
characteristic  modesty,  illustrated  by  letters  from  his 
own  pen fii 

CHAP.  IV. 

Circumstances  of  (lie  American  and  British  armies  when 
Hale  undertook  his  fatal  mission.  The  office  of  a  spy — 
its  danger — its  ignominy.  Col.  Knowltou  commissioned 
by  Gen.  Washington  to  procure  some  one  to  undertake 
it.  He  appeals  to  American  officers,  and  to  a  French 
Serjeant  in  the  army.  They  all  refuse,  save  Hale,  who 
readily  volunteers  for  the  duty.  His  fellow-officers 
warmly  remonstrat< — but  in  vain.  Hale  noblv  persists 
in  his  purpose -  .  74 


After  receiving  instructions  from  (icneral  Washington, 
he  starts  upon  his  expedition,  accompanied  by  Stephen 
Hcmpstead,  a  confidential  soldier  of  his  own  company. 
They  reach  Norwalk,  Connecticut.  Hale  here  assumes 
a  disguise,  parts  with  his  companion,  and  leaves  for  Lono- 


CONTENTS.  XI 

Page. 

Island  in  the  sloop  Huntington,  Captain  Pond.  Safe 
passage  across  the  Sound.  His  journey  to  New  York, 
and  its  risk? 9O 

CHAP.  VI. 

He  starts  on  his  return  to  the  American  Camp.  Reaches 
the  "  Cedars,"  East  Neck,  Huntington,  L.  I.,  where  he 
is  captured.  His  behaviour  on  the  occasion.  Is  carried 
to  New  York.  The  great  fire  in  the  city  at  the  time. 
Is  immediately  taken  before  Gen.  Howe.  The  head 
quarters,  appearance,  and  character  of  the  British  Com 
mander-in-chief.  Hale's  heroic  conduct  upon  his  exam 
ination.  Is  condemned  as  a  spy,  and  is  to  be  hung  "  at 
daybreak  the  next  morning  " 101 

CHAP.  VII. 

A  reflection.  Hale  unappalled.  His  confinement  after 
sentence.  His  jailer  and  executioner,  William  Cunning 
ham,  Provost-Marshal  of  the  British  army.  Cruel  treat 
ment  of  Hale.  His  gloomy  situation.  His  noble  en 
durance.  Writes  letters  to  his  friends,  and  prepares 
himself,  sublimely,  for  the  catastrophe.  Is  taken  out  to 
die.  The  brutal  Provost-Marshal  tauntingly  demands 
from  him  a  dying  speech.  That  speech !  The  fatal 
swing 11<> 


Xll  CONTENTS. 

CHAP.   VIII. 

Page  . 
Kffect  of  Halo's  death — upon  (icn.  Washington — upon  the 

American  army — upon  his  relatives  and  friends  else 
where — upon  his  rump  attendant,  Ashcr  Wright.  Deep 
and  general  mourning.  The  Hale  Monument  Associa 
tion.  The  Monument.  Extracts  from  poetry  in  memo 
ry  of  Hale.  An  epitapli  hy  a  friend.  Comparison 
hctween  Hale  and  Andre.  Conclusion.  .  .  1,36 


A  P  P  E  N  I)  I  X  . 

Page. 

A.  Genealogy  of  the  Family  of  Nathan  Hale,    ....   185 

B.  Sketch  of  the  lady  to  whom  Hale  was  betrothed,    .     .  203 

C.  Hale's  Diary,        205 

D.  Remarks  on  Hale  hy  Hon.  II.  J.  Raymond  of  New 

York.  .  227 


NATHAN  HALE. 


CHAPTER    I. 

Hale's  birth,  family,  and  birthplace.  His  early  training.  He 
prepares  for  College.  He  enters  Yale.  His  career  in  Col 
lege.  He  graduates,  and  takes  a  school  in  East  Haddam, 
Conn.  His  occupations  there.  He  removes  to  New  London, 
and  continues  to  teach.  His  feelings  and  ability  as  an  in 
structor.  The  manner  in  which  he  spent  his  time.  His  cor 
respondence.  His  personal  appearance.  His  great  activity. 
The  rich  promise  of  his  youth. 

NATHAN  HALE  was  born  in  Coventry,  Con 
necticut,  June  sixth,  1755.  He  was  the  sixth  of 
twelve  children,  nine  sons  and  three  daughters, 
offspring  of  Richard  and  Elisabeth  Hale,  and 
was  the  third  in  descent  from  John  Hale,  the 
first  minister  of  Beverly,  Massachusetts.*  His 
father,  a  man  of  sterling  integrity,  piety  and 
industry,  had  emigrated  early  in  life  from  New- 


*  See  Appendix  A. 

2 


14  N  A  T  H  A  N     H  A  L  E  . 

bury  in  Massachusetts  to  Coventry,  where,  as 
farmer,  magistrate,  deacon  in  the  church,  and 
representative  several  times  in  the  General  As 
sembly,  he  passed  a  long,  laborious  and  useful 
life,  and  died  on  the  first  of  June,  1802,  much 
lamented.  His  mother,  the  daughter  of  Joseph 
and  Elisabeth  Strong,  of  Coventry,  was  a  lady 
of  high  moral  and  domestic  worth,  strongly  at 
tached  to  her  children,  and  careful  of  their  cul 
ture.  The  family  was  eminently  Puritan  in  its 
faith,  tastes,  and  manners — a  quiet,  strict,  godly 
household,  where  the  Bible  ruled,  and  family 
prayers  never  failed,  nor  was  grace  ever  omitted 
at  meals,  nor  work  done  after  sundown  on  a 
Saturday  night. 

The  nature  of  Nathan  Halc's  early  training 
may  hence  be  understood.  He  must  have  been 
brought  up  scrupulously  "in  the  fear  of  God." 
His  after  life  proves  that  he  was,  though  when 
a  stripling  his  lively  instincts  led  him  at  times 
to  rebel  a  little,  with  some  of  his  brothers,  but 
never  rudely,  against  parental  strictness.  A 
pleasing  incident  is  preserved,  illustrating  this 


NATHAN     HALE.  15 

last  remark.  His  father  forbade  his  children  to 
use  the  morris-board,  thinking  the  diversion 
might  lead  to  evil,  and  to  restrain  them,  would 
allow  at  times  but  one  light  in  the  room.  This 
he  was  accustomed  to  hold  in  his  own  hand, 
while  he  sat  in  a*  large  arm-chair,  and  read  till 
he  sank  to  sleep.  The  attempt  to  remove  the 
candlestick  from  his  grasp  was  almost  sure  to 
result  in" -waking  him.  So  the  boys,  Nathan 
among  them,  used  to  cluster  around  his  chair, 
and  play  out  their  games  on  the  morris-board, 
while  the  sleeping  father,  unconsciously  at  the 
time, 

"  Holding  the  tallow  candle  till  its  close, 
Let  no  flame  waste  o'er  his  repose." 

The  old-fashioned,  two-storied  house  in  which 
scenes  like  this  just  described  took  place,  stands 
upon  elevated  ground,  with  a  fine  prospect  west 
ward,  and  had,  at  the  time  of  which  we  speak, 
the  appendages  of  copious  yards  and  outbuild- 


16  NATHAN     HALE. 

ings,  and  trees,*  while  the  town  around,  the  gift 
of  the  Mohegan  sachem  Joseph  to  its  first  pro 
prietors,  was  much  varied  by  hill  and  dale,  forest 
and  meadow,  and  beautified  with  a  large  lake 
and  numerous  streams. 

Nathan  early  exhibited  a  fondness  for  those 
rural  sports  to  which  such  a  birthplace  and 
scenery  naturally  invited  him.  He  loved  the 
gun  and  fishing-rod,  and  exhibited  great  inge 
nuity  in  fashioning  juvenile  implements  of  every 
sort.  He  was  fond  of  running,  leaping,  wrest 
ling,  firing  at  a  mark,  throwing,  lifting,  playing 
ball.  In  consequence,  his  infancy,  at  first  feeble, 
soon  hardened  by  simple  diet  and  exercise  into 
a  firm  boyhood.  And  with  the  growth  of  his 
body,  his  mind,  naturally  bright  and  active,  de 
veloped  rapidly.  He  mastered  his  books  with 
ease,  was  fond  of  reading  out  of  school,  and  was 
constantly  applying  his  information.  His  moth 
er,  and  particularly  his  grandmother  Strong, 
nourished  his  thirst  for  knowledge,  and  to  their 

*  Sec  Frcmtispiece. 


NATHAN    HALE.  17 

influence  it  was  owing  that  his  father  at  last 
consented,  contrary  to  his  original  purpose, 
fit  him  for  college.  He  was  to  be  educated  for 
the  ministry,  as  were  also  two  of  his  brothers, 
and  was  placed  as  a  pupil  under  the  care  of 
Doctor  Joseph  Himtington,  the  pastor  of  the 
parish  in  which  he  was  born. 

Classical  academies  were  then  rare  out  of  the 
county  towns  of  New  England,  and  the  country 
boy  who  aspired  to  a  liberal  education  was  gen 
erally  compelled  to  learn  his  Latin  and  Greek 
from  the  clergyman.  And  in  most  cases  he  was 
thus  well  taught.  In  Hale's  instance  there  is 
no  doubt  of  the  fact.  His  instructor,  as  his 
various  controversial  and  other  writings  show, 
was  very  competent.  He  "was  considered  in 
the  churches  a  pattern  of  learning,"  was  labori 
ous,  assiduous,  and  mild,  and  when,  in  1770, 
young  Nathan,  then  in  his  sixteenth  year,  pre 
sented  himself  for  admission  to  the  halls  of 
Yale,  we  have  reason  to  believe  that  he  passed 
the  ordeal  of  examination  with  more  than  usual 
2* 


18  NATHAN     HALE. 

credit  in  reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic,  and  a 
very  reputable  acquaintance  with  Sallust,  Cicero, 
and  the  Greek  Testament. 

Of  his  career  in  college  but  little  is  known. 
That  it  was  distinguished  by  good  scholarship, 
good  behaviour,  and  industry,  is  however  certain. 
That  it  was  marked  by  great  popularity  among 
his  fellows,  and  with  the  Faculty,  is  equally  cer 
tain.  Doctor  Dwight,  his  tutor,  entertained  a 
very  high  idea  of  his  capacity.  He  has  beauti 
fully  eulogized  him  in  verse.  He  was  wonted, 
down  to  the  close  of  his  life,  frequently  to  recur 
to  him,  and  always  in  terms  of  admiration  of 
his  course  in  college,  and  of  deep  regret  for  his 
untimely  fate.*  By  him,  as  also  from  relatives 
of  the  pupil,  we  are  assured  that  Hale  was  pecu- 

*In  the  American  Historical  Magazine  for  January,  1836,  is 
a  communication,  signed  M.,  and  written,  we  are  assured  by 
the  Editor,  by  "a  gentleman  who  was  connected  with  the  med 
ical  staff  of  the  Revolutionary  army,"  and  who  was  "an  early 
acquaintance  and  friend  of  Hale."  In  this  the  writer  says : 
"Nathan  Hale  I  was  acquainted  with,  from  his  frequent  visits 
at  my  father's  house,  while  an  academical  student.  His  own 


NATHAN    HALE.  19 

liarly  fond  of  scientific  pursuits,  and  that  in 
these  he  stood  at  the  head  of  his  class.  "  And 
Science  lured  him  to  her  sweet  abode,"  is  the 
language  of  Doctor  Dwight — a  fact  proved  also 
by  the  preponderance  of  books  in  this  depart 
ment  in  Hale's  own  little  library — among  which, 
particularly,  was  a  new  and  complete  Dictionary, 
in  four  large  octavo  volumes,  of  the  arts  and 
sciences — comprehending  all  the  branches  of 
useful  knowledge,  with  accurate  descriptions  as 
well  of  various  machines  and  instruments  as  of 
the  classes,  kinds,  preparations  and  uses  of  nat 
ural  productions,  and  illustrated  with  above 
three  hundred  copperplate  engravings.  In  the 
languages  also  he  was  a  proficient.  He  stood, 
as  the  Commencement  Exercises  show,  among 
the  first  thirteen  in  a  class  of  thirty-six. 

That  he  was  anxious  for  mental  improvement, 


remarks,  and  the  remarks  of  my  father,  left  at  that  period  an 
indelible  impression  on  my  mind." — "His  urbanity  and  general 
deportment  were  peculiarly  attracting,  and  for  solid  acquire 
ments  I  am  sure  he  would  lose  nothing  in  comparison  with 
Andre." 


20  NATHAN     HALE. 

and  labored  diligently  to  secure  it,  is  proved  by 
other  facts.  While  at  Yale,  he  actively  aided 
to  found  and  sustain  the  Liiiouian  Society  of 
this  institution — and  he  was  in  the  habit  of  epis 
tolary  correspondence  with  some  of  his  class 
mates  upon  literary  subjects,  themes  of  taste 
and  criticism,  of  grammar  and  philology.  He 
would  correct  carefully,  and  in  writing,  the 
compositions  of  some  of  his  fellows,  and  receive 
the  same  friendly  office  in  return.  A  letter  from 
Benjamin  Tallmadge,*  his  classmate,  still  pre 
served,  is  of  this  character,  in  which  the  latter 
vindicates  his  own  use  of  the  comparative  de 
gree  against  a  previous  criticism  by  Hale. 

Nor  did  Hale  while  in  college  forget  his  ath 
letic  sports.  The  marks  of  a  prodigious  leap 
which  he  made  upon  the  Green  in  New  Haven, 
were  long  preserved,  and  pointed  out.  His  in 
tercourse  witli  his  mates  was  always  affable. 
He  formed  many  college  friendships,  and  they 

*  This  kind  of  exercise,  writes  Tallmadge,  gives  us  "  oppor 
tunity  to  scrutinize  all  manner  of  writing  and  to  avoid  defects, 
and  promotes  careful  consideration  of  assertions." 


NATHANHALE.  21 

lasted  till  his  death — with  James  Hillhouse,  Ben 
jamin  Tallmadgc,  Roger  Alden,  John  P.  Wyllys, 
Thomas  Mead,  Elihu  Marvin,  and  others  his 
classmates,  with  whom  he  kept  up  an  intimate 
correspondence  as  long  as  he  lived.  He  was 
assigned,  on  graduating,  a  part  with  Tallmadge, 
and  William  Robinson,  and  Ezra  Samson,  in  a 
Latin  Syllogistic  Dispute,  followed  by  a  Foren 
sic  Debate,  on  the  question,  "Whether  the  Edu 
cation  of  Daughters  be  not,  without  any  just 
reason,  more  neglected  than  that  of  Sons" — a 
curious  theme,  as  implying  in  that  early  day  an 
inattention  to  the  mental  cultivation  of  the 
gentler  sex  which  cannot  be  charged  on  our 
own  age.  How  Hale  managed  with  the  subject 
we  are  not  informed,  but  an  especial  favorite  as 
he  always  was  with  the  ladies,  we  doubt  not 
that  his  nature  urged  him  upon  this  occasion  'to 
vindicate  their  claims  to  educational  advantages. 
Soon  after  graduating,  which  was  in  Septem 
ber,  1T73,  he  commenced  keeping  school.  His 
first  engagement  in  this  way  was  at  East  Had- 
dam,  where  he  spent  the  winter  of  1773-4 ;  in 


22  NATHANHALE. 

what  kind  of  school  precisely  we  are  not  in 
formed,  hut  probably  in  some  select  one  where 
he  was  required  to  instruct  both  in  English  and 
in  the  Classical  Tongues.  East  Haddam  was 
at  this  time  a  place  of  much  wealth  and  busi 
ness  activity,  but  if  we  are  to  judge  from  Hale's 
own  description,  rather  secluded  from  the  rest 
of  the  world. 

"I  was  at  the  receipt  of  your  letter,"  he 
writes  his  friend  Mead,  May  second,  1774,  from 
New  London, "  in  East  Haddam  (alias  Moodus,) 
a  place  which  I  at  first,  for  a  long  time,  con 
cluded  inaccessible  either  by  friends,  acquaint 
ance,  or  letters.  Nor  was  I  convinced  of  the 
contrary  until  I  received  yours,  and  at  the  same 
time  two  others  from  Alden  and  Wyllys.  It 
was  equally,  or  more  difficult,  to  convey  any 
thing  from  Moodus." 

But  though  thus  secluded,  it  is  the  testimony 
of  a  highly  intelligent  old  lady,*  who  knew  Hale 
well  when  he  resided  in  East  Haddam,  that  he 

*  The  late  Mrs.  Hannah  Pierson. 


NATHAN    HALE.  23 

was  happy,  faithful,  and  successful  in  his  office 
of  teacher.  "  Everybody  loved  him,"  she  said, 
"he  was  so  sprightly,  intelligent,  and  kind" 
and,  she  added  withal,  "so  handsome!"  The 
rich  scenery  of  the  town,  its  rocky  and  uneven 
face,  the  phenomena  from  which  it  derives  its 
Indian  name,  its  numerous  legends  of  Indian 
Pawaws,  its  Mount  Tom  and  Salmon  River, 
were  all  sources  of  great  delight  to  the  young 
instructor,  as  habitually,  the  cares  of  school 
being  over,  he  wandered  around  for  air  and 
exercise,  for  pleasure  and  the  sports  of  the 
chase — there 

"  where  the  little  country  girls 
Still  stop  to  whisper,  and  listen,  and  look, 
And  tell,  while  dressing  their  snnny  curls, 
Of  the  Black  Fox  of  Salmon  Brook." 

His  happy  combination  of  amiability,  vivac 
ity,  and  intelligence,  soon  attracted  attention 
elsewhere,  and  in  the  winter  of  1773-4,  we  find 
him  negotiating  with  the  Proprietors  of  the 


24  NATHAN     HALE. 

Union  Grammar  School  in  New  London  for  the 
charge  of  that  institution.  This  school  was  a 
select  one,  where  none  were  accepted  as  teach 
ers  but  those  "whose  characters  bore  the  strict 
est  scrutiny,"  and  where  Latin,  English,  writing, 
and  arithmetic  were  taught,  and  where  the  sal 
ary  was  seventy  pounds  a  year,  with  the  privi 
lege  of  teaching,  out  of  the  regular  school  hours, 
private  classes.  In  the  spring  of  1774  Hale 
took  this  situation,  and  in  a  letter  to  his  friend 
Roger  Alden,  dated  New  London,  May  second, 
1774,  thus  describes  it: 

"  I  am  at  present  in  a  school  in  New  London. 
I  think  my  situation  somewhat  preferable  to 
what  it  was  last  winter.  My  school  is  by  no 
means  difficult  to  take  care  of— it  consists  of 
about  thirty  scholars,  ten  of  whom  are  Latiners, 
and  all  but  one  of  the  rest  are  writers.  I  have 
a  very  convenient  school-house,  and  the  people 
are  kind  and  sociable.  I  promise  myself  some 
more  satisfaction  in  writing  and  receiving  letters 
from  you  than  I  have  as  yet  had.  I  know  of 
no  stated  communication,  but  without  any  doubt 


NATHAN    HALE.  25 

opportunities  will  be  much  more  frequent  than 
while  I  was  at  Moodus." 

In  a  letter  to  his  uncle  at  Portsmouth,  N.  H., 
dated  New  London,  September  twenty-fourth, 
1774,  he  gives  a  further  history  of  his  school- 
keeping,  five  months  later. 

"My  own  employment,"  he  says,  "is  at  pres 
ent  the  same  that  you  have  spent  your  days  in. 
I  have  a  school  of  32  boys,  about  half  Latin, 
the  rest  English.  The  salary  allowed  me  is 
£70  per  annum.  In  addition  to  this  I  have 
kept,  during  the  summer,  a  morning  school,  be 
tween  the  hours  of  five  and  seven,  of  about  20 
young  ladies;  for  which  I  have  received  6s. 
a  scholar,  by  the  quarter.  The  people  with 
whom  I  live  are  free  and  generous;  many  of 
them  are  gentlemen  of  sense  and  merit.  They 
are  desirous  that  I  would  continue  and  settle  in 
the  school,  and  propose  a  considerable  increase 
of  wages.  I  am  much  at  a  loss  whether  to 
accept  their  proposals.  Your  advice  in  this 
matter,  coming  from  an  uncle  and  from  a  man 
who  has  spent  his  life  in  the  business,  would,  I 


26  NATHAN    HALE. 

think,  be  the  best  I  could  possibly  receive.  A 
few  lines  on  this  subject,  and  also  to  acquaint 
me  with  the  welfare  of  your  family,  if  your 
leisure  will  permit,  will  be  much  to  the  satis 
faction  of  your  most  dutiful  nephew, 

"NATHAN  HALE." 

This  letter  shows  that  Hale's  services  as  a 
teacher  at  New  London  were  highly  apprecia 
ted  by  his  employers — a  fact  which  we  learn 
also  abundantly  from  other  sources,  and  partic 
ularly  from  his  pupils — who,  in  after  years,  all 
spoke  in  strong  terms,  both  of  his  skill  in  instruc 
tion,  and  of  his  excellence  as  a  man.* 

*  One  of  these  pupils,  Colonel  Samuel  Green,  now  of  Hartford, 
Connecticut,  still  survives — and  the  following  is  his  testimony  : 
"  Hale,"  he  informs  us,  "  was  a  man  peculiarly  engaging  in  his 
manners — these  were  mild  and  genteel.  The  scholars,  old  and 
young,  were  attached  to  him.  They  loved  him  for  his  tact  and 
amiability.  He  was  wholly  without  severity,  and  had  a  won 
derful  control  over  boys .  He  was  sprightly,  ardent  and  steady — 
bore  a  fine  moral  character,  and  was  respected  highly  by  all  his 
acquaintance.  The  school  in  which  he  taught  was  owned  by 
the  first  gentlemen  in  New  London,  all  of  whom  were  exceed 
ingly  gratified  by  Hale's  skill  and  assiduity."  With  this  agrees 


NATHAN     HALE.  27 

His  time  at  New  London,  out  of  school,  was 
spent,  a  portion  in  social  pleasures,  but  much  of 
it  in  self-culture.  The  letters  addressed  to  him 
which  remain,  as  well  as  some  letters  of  his  own, 
show  that  he  cultivated  the  intimacies  he  con 
tracted  in  college,  as  well  as  those  which  grew 
up  elsewhere,  with  great  assiduity,  and  that  he 
wrote  as  well  to  improve  his  understanding  as 
to  pour  out  his  friendship.  The  labors  and 
duties  of  a  teacher  were  a  frequent  theme  in 
his  letters  to  his  classmates  engaged  in  the  same 

the  testimony  of  Mrs.  Elisabeth  Poole,  of  New  London,  long 
an  inmate  of  the  same  family  with  Hale,  who  says  that  "  his 
capacity  as  a  teacher,  and  the  mildness  of  his  mode  of  instruc 
tion,  were  highly  appreciated  both  by  parents  and  pupils  " — 
that  "  he  was  peculiarly  free  from  the  shadow  of  guile  " — and 
that "  his  simple,  unostentatious  manner  of  imparting  right  views 
and  feelings  to  less  cultivated  understandings  "  was  unsurpassed 
by  that  of  any  individual,  who,  at  the  period  of  her  acquaintance 
with  him,  or  after,  had  fallen  under  her  observation.  To  the 
same  effect  Miss  Cattlkin.s,  in  her  History  of  New  London, 
remarks,  that  "  as  a  teacher,  Capt.  Hale  is  said  to  have  been  a 
tirm  disciplinarian,  but  happy  in  his  mode  of  conveying  instruc 
tion,  and  highly  respected  by  his  pupils." 


28  NATHAN     HALE. 

vocation.  Nor  were  the  ladies  forgotten  by  his 
pen.  He  had  many  female  correspondents,  and 
among  these  one,  to  his  fancy  "  a  bright,  particu 
lar  star  "  he  "  thought  to  wed  " — a  young  lady 
of  his  native  town  with  whom,  in  his  father's 
family,  he  passed  several  years  of  intimacy,  and 
to  whom  while  in  college  he  was  betrothed.* 

*  It  is  to  her  that  William  Robinson  his  classmate  in  college, 
refers  in  the  following  passage  in  a  letter  dated  Windsor,  [Conn.,] 
January  twentieth,  1773,  and  addressed  to  Hale  at  East  Haddam. 

"  My  school  is  not  large ;  my  neighbors  are  kind  and  clever, 
and  (summatim)  my  distance  from  a  house  on  your  side  the 
river  which  contains  an  object  worthy  the  esteem  of  every  one, 
and,  as  I  conclude,  has  yours  in  an  especial  manner,  is  not  great." 

Her  maiden  name  was  Alice  Adams,  and  she  was  born  in 
Canterbury,  Connecticut.  Her  mother  was  the  second  wife  of 
Captain  Hale's  father.  She  was  distinguished  both  for  her 
intelligence  and  her  beauty.  [See  Appendix  B.] 

After  Hale's  death  she  married  for  her  first  husband,  Mr.  Elea- 
zer  Ripley,  who  left  her  a  widow  at  eighteen  years  of  age,  with 
one  child.  The  child  died  about  a  year  after  its  father's  death. 
She  subsequently  married  William  Lawrence  Esquire,  of  Hart 
ford,  Connecticut,  where  she  lived  highly  esteemed,  to  a  ripe  old 
age.  She  died  September  fourth,  1845,  aged  eighty-eight.  She 
possessed  for  many  years  a  miniature  of  Hale,  besides  numerous 


NATHAN     HALE.  29 

Sometimes,  though  without  '  a  poet's  just  pre 
tence,'  with  no  attempt  at  the  graces 

"  which  methods  teach, 
And  which  a  master  hand  can  only  reach," 

he  threw  his  thoughts  into  rhyme — but  not  often, 
unless  provoked  by  some  poetical  epistle  which 
he  received — as  once  by  one  from  his  friend 
Tallmadge  at  Wethersfield,  Connecticut,  to 
whom,  in  reply  to  an  apology  by  the  latter  for 
his  Muse,  Hale  writes, 

letters  from  him,  and  one  of  his  Camp-Books.  The  miniature, 
most  unfortunately,  has  disappeared.  So  also  have  the  letters  ; 
but  the  Camp-Book  we  have  seen  and  examined.  It  is  now  in 
the  possession  of  one  of  the  lady's  grand-daughters,  to  whose 
polite  and  careful  noting  of  her  grandmother's  statements  we 
are  indebted  for  several  very  interesting  facts  about  Hale. 

Shakespeare  makes  "  the  idolatrous  fancy  "  of  a  surviving  lover 
"sanctify  the  relics"  of  a  lover  lost,  and  the  strongest  memo 
ries  of  old  age,  it  is  well  known,  fasten  upon  the  years  and  events 
of  youth.  It  is  a  striking  circumstance  in  illustration,  that 
the  lady  in  question,  just  as  her  pulse  of  life  was  ebbing  to  its 
stop,  murmured,  as  her  last  words  on  earth,  "  Write  to  Nathan  !  " 

3* 


30  NATHAN     HALE. 

"  You're  wrong  to  blame 
Your  generous  Muse,  and  call  her  lame  ; 
For  when  arrived,  no  mark  was  found 
Of  weakness,  lameness,  sprain  or  wound  " — 

and  bestriding  her  himself,  he  describes  her  as 
tripping, "  without  or  spur  or  whip,"  back  "  along 
the  way  she  lately  trod  " — giving 

"  no  fear  or  pain, 
Unless  at  times  to  hold  the  rein  " — 

until  at  last,  arrived  at  Wethersfield,  Tallmadge 
is  invited,  from  the  appearance  of  his  Pegasus, 
to  judge, 

"  unless  entirely  sound, 
If  she  could  bear  [Hale]  such  a  round." 

It  is  the  testimony  of  all  who  knew  Hale,  both 
at  New  London  and  elsewhere,  that  he  was  ever 
busy.  "A  man  ought  never  to  lose  a  moment's 
time,"  he  enters  in  his  Diary — "if  he  put  off  a 
thing  from  one  minute  to  the  next,  his  reluc- 


NATHAN     HALE.  31 

tance  is  but  increased  " — and  his  own  life  fully 
conformed  to  the  injunction  which  he  thus  form 
ally  notes  down.  "  Always  employed  about 
something,"  testifies  Mrs.  Lawrence,  "he  was 
ingenious  and  persevering."  When  his  head 
was  not  at  work,  his  hands  were.  Here,  for 
example,  is  a  large  and  beautiful  Powder-horn, 


still  remaining,  which  he  fashioned  during  one 
of  his  college  vacations.*  Mrs.  Lawrence,  when 
a  girl  and  a  member  of  his  father's  family,  frc- 

*  It  is  now  in  possession  of  a  grandson  of  the  Mrs.  Lawrence 
mentioned  in  the  text,  William  Roderic  Lawrence  Esq.,  of 
Hartford,  Connecticut — who  received  it  from  his  father,  to 
whom  it  was  given  by  Deacon  Richard  Hale,  the  father  of 
Xathan.  We  are  much  indebted  to  Mr.  Lawrence  for  the  beau 
tiful  delineation  of  it  by  his  own  hands. 


32  NATHAN     HALE. 

quently  saw  him  at  work  upon  it,  and  remem 
bered  to  her  dying  day  the  peculiar  concentra- 
tiveness  of  attention,  and  the  zest  with  which 
upon  this,  as  upon  everything  else  in  the  way  of 
construction  that  he  undertook,  he  labored  to 
bestow  shape  and  comeliness. 

He  used  to  say  that  he  "  could  do  anything 
but  spin,"  as  he  laughed  with  the  girls  over  the 
spinning-wheel  at  Coventry. 

In  height  he  was  about  five  feet  and  ten 
inches,  and  was  exceedingly  well  proportioned. 
His  figure  was  elegant  and  commanding.  He 
had  a  full,  broad  chest,  full  face,  light  blue  eyes, 
light  rosy  complexion,  and  hair  of  a  medium 
brown.  The  elasticity  of  his  frame  is  well  at 
tested  by  feats  which  he  used  frequently  to  per 
form  in  New  London.  He  not  only,  says  Colonel 
Green,  would  put  his  hand  upon  a  fence  high  as 
his  head  and  clear  it  easily  at  a  bound,  but  would 
jump  from  the  bottom  of  one  empty  hogshead 
over  and  down  into  a  second,  and  from  the  bot 
tom  of  the  second  over  and  down  into  a  third, 
and  from  the  third  over  and  out,  like  a  cat. 


NATHAN     HALE.  33 

u  His  face,"  adds  Colonel  Green,  "  was  full  of 
intelligence  and  benevolence,  of  good  sense  and 
good  feeling." — "Every  new  emotion,"  says 
Mrs.  Poole,  "  lighted  it  with  a  brilliancy  per 
ceptible  to  even  common  observers." — "  He  had 
marks  on  his  forehead,"  says  Asher  Wright, 
"  so  that  every  body  would  know  him  who  had 
ever  seen  him,  having  once  had  powder  flashed 
in  his  face.  He  had  also  a  large  hair  mole  on 
his  neck,  just  where  the  knot  came.  •  In  his  boy 
hood  his  companions  sometimes  twitted  him 
about  it,  saying  he  would  be  hanged." 

Thus,  genial  in  his  nature — of  refined  ad 
dress — of  remarkable  personal  beauty — neat, 
unusually  so  both  in  his  habits  and  dress — seri 
ous  or  gay  with  the  nature  of  the  occasion  or 
subject — quick  to  discern  and  to  relish  a  joke — 
of  a  disposition  exceedingly  affectionate — con 
stant  in  his  friendships — always  ready  to  lend  a 
helping  hand — it  is  the  uniform  testimony  of 
those  who  knew  him,  that  no  person  more  than 
Hale  was  the  idol  of  his  acquaintances,  and  that 
no  young  man  of  his  day  commenced  life  under 


34  NATHAN     HALE. 

more  flattering  auspices.  His  school,  the  church, 
society,  books,  and  pleasure,  each  by  turns 
received  his  attention — each  fitly — and  time  at 
New  London  rolled  along  with  him,  its  sands 
noted  as  they  fell,  and  glittering  with  promise.* 

*  "  Possessing  genius,  taste,  and  ardor,"  says  Sparks  of  Hale, 
"he  became  distinguished  as  a  scholar;  and,  endowed  in  an 
eminent  degree  with  those  graces  and  gifts  of  nature  which  add 
a  charm  to  youthful  excellence,  he  gained  universal  esteem  and 
confidence.  To  high  moral  worth  and  irreproachable  habits, 
were  joined  gentleness  of  manners,  an  ingenuous  disposition, 
and  vigor  of  understanding.  No  young  man  of  his  years  put 
forth  a  fairer  promise  of  future  usefulness  and  celebrity ;  the 
fortunes  of  none  were  fostered  more  sincerely  by  the  generous 
good  wishes  of  his  associates,  or  the  hopes  and  encouraging 
presages  of  his  superiors." 


CHAPTER   II. 

The  Lexington  Alarm.  Hale  gives  tip  his  school,  and  joins 
the  army  as  a  volunteer.  His  motives  in  doing  so.  Is  sta 
tioned  for  a  while  at  New  London.  Leaves  for  Boston.  The 
prospect  before  him.  Joins  the  brigade  of  General  Sullivan. 
His  life  for  six  months  in  the  camp  around  Boston.  His 
skill  in  military  discipline — his  studies — his  amusements — 
with  extracts  from  his  Diary. 

SUCH  was  Nathan  Hale — and  so  engaged,  when 
the  Lexington  Alarm,  April  nineteenth,  1775, 
summoned  the  country  to  arms.  Upon  the 
arrival  of  the  express  with  the  news  from  Boston, 
the  citizens  of  New  London  at  once  assembled 
in  town-meeting* — breathed  forth  in  speeches 
and  resolutions  their  spirit  of  patriotic  resist- 

*  Judge  Law  in  the  chair. 


36  NATHAN     HALE. 

ance — and  determined  that  Captain  Colt's  Inde 
pendent  Company,  the  only  uniformed  company 
in  the  place,  should  march  to  the  scene  of  hos 
tilities  the  next  morning.  Hale  was  among  the 
speakers  on  this  occasion.  "  I  was  struck,"  says 
Captain  Law,  from  whom  the  fact  is  derived, 
"with  his  noble  demeanor,  and  the  emphasis 
with  which  he  addressed  the  assembly." — "  Let 
m  march  immediately"  said  he,  "  and  never  lay 
down  our  arms  until  ive  obtain  our  independ 
ence!"  And  enrolling  at  once  as  a  volunteer, 
he  assembled  his  school  the  next  morning — made 
his  pupils  an  affectionate  address — "  gave  them 
earnest  counsel — prayed  with  them — and  shak 
ing  each  by  the  hand,"  took  his  leave. 

It  is  probable  that  he  soon  returned  to  New 
London — but  only  to  discharge  his  duties  in  the 
school  temporarily,  until  he  could  arrange  for  a 
permanent  connection  with  the  army.  This 
connection  would  interrupt  his  father's  cherished 
project  of  educating  him  for  the  ministry.  He 
wrote,  therefore,  to  his  parent — stated  that  "  a 
sense  of  duty  urged  him  to  sacrifice  everything 


NATHAN     HALE.  37 

for  his  country" — and  promised,  soon  as  the 
war  was  ended,  to  comply  with  his  wishes  in 
regard  to  a  profession.  The  old  gentleman  was 
eminently  patriotic.  Many  a  time  thereafter, 
during  the  war,  did  he  forbid  his  family  to  use 
the  wool  raised  upon  his  farm,  that  it  might  be 
woven  into  blankets  for  the  army.  Many  a  time 
did  he  sit  upon  his  '  stoop,'  and  watch  for  weary 
soldiers  as  they  passed  his  house,  that  he  might 
take  them  within,  and  if  necessary,  feed,  and 
clothe,  and  lodge  them.  He  assented  readily  to 
his  son's  design,  and  July  sixth,  Hale  enlisted 
as  Lieutenant  in  the  third  company  of  the 
seventh  Connecticut  regiment  commanded  by 
Colonel  Charles  Webb.  On  the  succeeding 
morning  he  addressed  to  the  Proprietors  of  the 
Union  School  the  following  note : 

"Gentlemen.  Having  received  information 
that  a  place  is  allotted  me  in  the  army,  and 
being  inclined,  as  I  hope,  for  good  reasons,  to 
accept  it,  I  am  constrained  to  ask  as  a  favor  that 
which  scarce  anything  else  would  have  induced 
4 


38  NATHAN     HALE. 

me  to,  which  is,  to  be  excused  from  keeping 
your  school  any  longer.  For  the  purpose  of 
conversing  upon  this,  and  of  procuring  another 
master,  some  of  your  number  think  it  best  there 
should  be  a  general  meeting  of  the  proprietors. 
The  time  talked  of  for  holding  it  is  6  o'clock 
this  afternoon,  at  the  school  house.  The  year 
for  which  I  engaged  will  expire  within  a  fort 
night,  so  that  my  quitting  a  few  days  sooner,  I 
hope,  will  subject  you  to  no  great  inconvenience. 

"  School  keeping  is  a  business  of  which  I  was 
always  fond,  but  since  my  residence  in  this  town, 
everything  has  conspired  to  render  it  more 
agreeable.  I  have  thought  much  of  never  quit 
ting  it  but  with  life,  but  at  present  there  seems 
an  opportunity  for  more  extended  public  service. 

"  The  kindness  expressed  to  me  by  the  people 
of  the  place,  but  especially  the  proprietors  of 
the  school,  will  always  be  very  gratefully  re 
membered  by,  gentlemen,  with  respect,  your 
humble  servant,  NATHAN  HALE. 

"Friday,  July  7,  1775.  To  John  Winthrop 
Esq.,  Richard  Law  Esq.,  &c.,  &c." 


NATHAN     HALE.  39 

The  simple  modesty  and  sincerity  with  which 
Hale  speaks  of  himself,  and  his  purpose,  in  the 
preceding  letter,  are  worthy  of  remark.  No 
bursts  of  patriotic  sentiment — no  vision  of 
plumes  and  epaulettes — no  self-satisfied  allusion 
to  that  brave  kinsman  of  his  own,  whose  name  he 
bore  in  full,  and  who,  in  the  battle-band  of  the 
old  French  War,  gallantly  gave  his  life  before 
the  bastions  of  Louisburgh*— not  even  one  little 
bravado  about  himself,  his  own  motives,  or  his 
country — though  these  might  all  have  been 
pardoned  to  an  ardent,  ambitious  youth  of 
twenty-one  summers.  But  "being  inclined  for 
good  reasons,"  as  he  hopes,  to  accept  a  place 
allotted  him  in  the  army — perceiving  an  oppor 
tunity,  as  it  seems  to  him,  "  for  more  extended 
public  service" — he  asks  to  be  excused  from 

*  This  kinsman,  named  Xathan  Hale,  says  the  American  His 
torical  Magazine  for  February,  1836,  "was  slain  by  the  burst 
ing  of  a  cannon  at  the  capture  of  Louisburgh,  in  the  '  old 
French  war/  as  it  is  called  by  aged  people.  He  is  noted  in 
the  account  of  the  battle,  as  a  gallant  officer  in  the  Connecticut 
Line." 


40  NATHAN     HALE. 

"keeping  school  any  longer."  Were  all  solicit 
ations  modestly  preferred  as  this  of  Bale's— 
were  all  the  paths  of  military  glory  entered  upon 
in  a  manner  as  unassuming,  and  with  motives 
as  sincere,  as  those  which  actuate  the  youthful 
hero  we  commemorate,  now  as  he  asks  to  step 
out  on  the  bloody  platform  of  the  American 
Revolution — what  a  world  of  grandiloquent 
tongues  would  be  hushed  to  repose,  and  how 
surely  those  wars  only  would  occur  which  league 
the  soldier  with  law,  liberty,  and  truth ! 

The  company  to  which  Hale  was  attached, 
was  under  the  immediate  command  of  Major 
John  Latimer.  It  constituted  part  of  a  regi 
ment  which  was  raised  by  order  of  the  General 
Assembly,  in  1775,  both  for  home  defence,  and 
for  the  protection  of  the  country  at  large — and, 
until  placed  under  the  General  in  chief  of  the 
Continental  Army,  remained  subject  to  the 
orders  of  the  Connecticut  Council  of  Safety. 
Here  now — of  interest  to  be  inserted  in  this 
place — are  the  names  of  its  members  when 
Hale  first  took  charge  of  it — as  appears  from 


NATHANHALE.  41 

a  Pay   Roll    at  present  in   the   office   of   the 
Comptroller  of  State  at  Hartford. 

John  Latiraer,  Major. 

NATHAN  HALE,  Capt.  after  1st  Sept.  till  then  Lieut. 

John  Belcher,  Lieutenant. 

Joseph  Hilliard,  Lieutenant. 

Joseph  Hillard,  Lieutenant  after  1st  September. 

Alpheus  Chapman,  Ensign  after  " 

George  Hurlburt,  Serjeant. 

Joseph  Page,  " 

Reuben  Hewitt,  " 

Ezra  Bushnell,  " 

Stephen  Prentice,  Corporal  till  Sept.  1st,  then  Sergeant* 

Joshua  Raymond,     Corporal. 

Abraham  Avery,  " 

Henry  Hillard, 

Zebulon  Cheeseborough," 

Ranimerton  Sears,  Drummer. 

Robert  Latimore,      Fifer. 

Robert  Latimore,  Jr.,  " 

William  Bacon,  Isaac  Hammon, 

Christopher  Beebe,  William  Hatch, 

Amos  Butler,  Samuel  Hix, 

Richard  Booge,  Peter  Holt, 

Charles  Brown,  Thomas  Hicox, 

Jonathan  Bowers,  Elisha  Hancock, 

Asa  Baldwine,  Elisha  Johnson, 

4* 


42 


NATHAN  HALE. 


Guy  Beckwith, 
William  Carver, 
James  Comstock, 
Benjamin  Comstock,  Jim., 
Simeon  Cobb, 
Fairbanks  Church, 
John  Chappell, 
Benjamin  Checseborough, 
Caleb  Couts, 
Reuben  Sheamks, 
George  Chunks, 
Peter  Cheeseborough, 
Edward  Clark, 
James  Dennis, 
John  Dean, 
John  Dennis, 
Christopher  Dean, 
Enos  Greenfield, 
David  Hilhouse, 
George  Hakes, 


Joseph  Lovatt, 
David  McDowell, 
Abel  Minard, 
Jabez  Minard, 
Lawrence  Martin, 
Enos  Nero, 
Jared  Stephens, 
Daniel  Talbott, 
Amos  Shaw, 
Sias  Pawhig, 
John  Patton, 
Christopher  Woodbridgc, 
James  Ward, 
Samuel  Woodkind, 
Ichabod  Young, 
John  Holmes, 
Joseph  Brown, 
Joseph  Peters, 
Jeremiah  Dodge, 
David  Baldwine.* 


*  Of  the  above  Company,  seventy-one,  including  the  officers, 
enlisted  in  July,  and  three  in  August.  Three  died  before  the 
third  day  of  December,  1775,  viz.,  Corporal  Stephen  Prentice, 
November  twenty-second — William  Hatch,  November  twenty- 
seventh — and  Jonathan  Bowers,  December  second.  Hale's 
company,  when  at  New  York,  was  augmented  to  ninety  men — 
its  full  complement. 


NATHAN     HALE.  43 

August  third,  Hale's  Company,  together  with 
that  of  Captain  Shipman,  was  stationed,  by 
order  of  the  Council,  at  New  London,  where 
danger  was  apprehended  from  British  men  of 
war  then  hovering  on  the  adjacent  coasts. 

August  seventeenth,  its  commander  received 
orders  from  the  Council  to  "keep  regular 
watches  and  guards  about  his  camp,  and  see 
that  his  soldiers  were  properly  exercised,  in 
structed,  and  kept  clean,  and  free  from  idleness 
and  bad  practices." 

September  fourth,  the  Company  was  ordered 
by  the  Council,  with  other  troops, "  to  make  such 
intrenchmeiits  and  works  of  defence  as  should 
be  directed  by  the  civil  authority  and  field  offi 
cers"  in  Xew  London. 

September  fourteenth,  in  consequence  of  a 
letter  from  General  Washington  "requiring 
peremptorily"  that  all  the  troops  last  raised  in 
Connecticut  should  be  sent  to  him,  Major  Lati- 
mer's  Company,  with  other  troops,  was  "  imme 
diately  ordered  to  march  to  the  camp  near 
Boston." 


44  NATHAN     HALE. 

September  twenty-fourth,  at  Rehoboth,  Massa 
chusetts,  one  Eliplialet  Slack  signs  a  receipt 
written  by  Hale's  own  hand,  and  in  Hale's  own 
Camp-Book,  for  five  shillings  and  tenpence  law 
ful  money  for  the  use  of  his  house  by  Major 
La-timer's  Company. 

Hale  then  has  been  for  two  months  and  a  half 
attached  to  the  army — has  been  for  about  fifty 
days  stationed  with  his  Company  at  New  Lon 
don,  and  is  now,  September  twenty-fourth,  in 
full  march  for  the  "  Camp  at  Boston." 

He  has  had  a  brief  experience  of  military 
drill,  and  watches,  and  intrenchments.  He  has 
exchanged  the  comfortable  sleeping  chamber  for 
the  tent — the  schoolmaster's  satchel  for  the  knap 
sack — the  dishes  of  the  quiet  house  table  for  the 
iron  pot,  tin  pail,  quart  runlet,  and  wooden 
bowl  of  the  camp — the  unstinted  fare  of  domes 
tic  life  for  the  soldier's  measured  pound  of  beef, 
or  bit  of  pork  and  pound  of  flour — and  a  salary 
of  seventy  pounds  a  year  and  six  shillings  a 
quarter  additional  for  teaching  girls,  for  forty- 
eight  pounds  a  year  wages  as  Lieutenant,  fifty- 


N  A  T  H  A  N     H  A  L  E  .  45 

two  shillings  of  enlistment  bounty,  and  "six 
pence  a  day  as  billeting  money  until  provided 
for  by  the  Colony  stores/'  He  is  a  soldier  of 
the  Continental  Line !  A  usurping  king,  thou 
sands  of  miles  away,  was  threatening  to  clutch 
the  hard  earnings  of  three  millions  of  Colonists, 
who  worshipped  God,  toiled  with  honesty,  and 
liked  some  liberty  to  think  and  act  for  them 
selves,  and  gather  a  little  treasure  for  their  old 
age,  and  for  their  biers — and  Hale  was  bent  on 
straggling  for  this  liberty.  Thrice  already,  for 
the  same  glorious  purpose — destined  in  its  career 
of  accomplishment  to  splinter  thrones  and  rock 
the  world — thrice  had  his  countrymen  met  the 
shock  of  battle,  and  poured  their  blood — at 
Lexington — Concord — and  when  they  made 

"  That  silent,  moonlight  march  to  Bunker  Hill, 

"With  spades,  and  swords,  bold  hearts  and  ready  hands — 
That  Spartan  step  without  their  flutes  !  " 

Hale  knew  well  these  themes.     An  intelligent 
student  of  his  country's  history,  he  was  familiar 


46  NATHANHALE.      ' 

with  its  '  traces  of  blood  and  prayer '  from  Plym 
outh  down  to  Bunker  Hill.     A  patriot,  he  felt 

"  the  thrill 

That  thoughts  of  well-loved  homes,  and  streams,  and  lands 
Awaken — " 

and  he  is  "going  into  the  fight!" 

September  twenty-eighth,  he  reached  his  sta 
tion  at  the  foot  of  Winter  Hill  near  Medford, 
where  he  remained  steadily  encamped,  in  the 
brigade  of  General  Sullivan,  till  the  twenty- 
third  of  December  succeeding,  on  which  day  he 
started  on  foot  with  Sergeant  Sage,  through 
snow  4  ancle  deep,'  on  a  visit  to  his  friends  in 
Connecticut.  January  twenty-seventh,  he  re 
turned  to  camp,  having  in  the  interim,  January 
first,  1776,  received  a  commission  from  Congress 
appointing  him  Captain  in  the  nineteenth  Regi 
ment  of  Foot  commanded  by  Colonel  Charles 
Webb.*  January  thirtieth,  he  removed  from 

*  It  is  probable  that  on  his  visit  to  Connecticut  he  went  to 
New  Haven — since  that  Officer  of  the  medical  staff  in  the  army 


NATHAN     HALE.  47 

Winter  Hill  to  Roxbury,  and  was  attached  to 
the  brigade  of  General  Spencer,  where  he  re 
mained  until  the  April  succeeding,  when  with 
the  troops  under  General  Heath,  he  removed, 
by  way  of  Norwich,  Connecticut,  to  New  York. 
His  history  during  this  period  of  about  six 
months,  from  the  last  of  September,  1775,  to 
April,  1776,  in  the  '  Camp  around  Boston,'  is 
marked  by  no  highly  conspicuous  event.  We 
have  no  military  successes,  of  dazzling  splendor, 
in  which  he  acted  a  part,  to  record.  The 
American  army,  as  is  well  known,  during  this 
time  was  not  drawn  out  in  battle  array.  There 
was  no  combination  of  hosts  upon  the  field. 

quoted  on  page  eighteen  of  this  volume,  thus  pleasantly  testi 
fies  respecting  him  :  "  Hale  remarked  to  my  father,  that  he  was 
offered  a  commission  in  the  service  of  his  country,  and  exclaimed, 
'  Duke  et  decorum  est  pro  patria  monV  These  were  some  of  the 
last  expressions  I  ever  heard  fall  from  his  lips.  The  remarks 
of  my  father,  after  Hale  left  the  house,  were,  '  That  man  is  a 
diamond  of  the  first  water,  calculated  to  excel  in  any  station 
he  assumes.  He  is  a  gentleman  and  a  scholar,  and  last,  though 
not  least  of  his  qualifications,  a  Christian  ! '  " 


48  NATHAN     HALE. 

All  was  siege  and  counterplot — one  army  in  a 
city,  shut  in  from  every  direction  but  the  sea, 
another  around  that  city  building  intrenchments, 
mounting  batteries,  and  striving  by  means  of 
storming  parties,  by  distant  cannonading,  and 
by  straitening  supplies,  to  drive  off  the  invader. 
Halo's  post,  however,  was  one  frequently  of 
much  peril,  and  his  labors  at  times  were  very 
arduous.  "  I  see  you  are  stationed,"  writes  one 
of  his  friends*  to  him,  October  ninth,  "in  the 
mouth  of  danger.  I  look  upon  your  situation 
as  more  perilous  than  any  other  in  the  camp." 
The  enemy  were  constantly  making  sorties — 
and  in  the  direction,  particularly,  in  which  Hale 
was  encamped — for  cattle,  for  provisions,  and  to 
weaken  the  American  lines.  They  hurled  shot 
and  shells  almost  daily — from  the  Boston  Com 
mon,  from  Copp's  Hill,  from  Bunker's  Hill,  and 
from  their  floating  batteries — upon  the  Ameri 
can  force.  The  strictest  watch  was  therefore 
necessary  against  surprise,  and  in  this  duty  Hale 

*  Gilbert  Saltonstall. 


NATHAN     HALE.  49 

participated  actively.  "  Mounted  picket  guard — 
mounted  main  guard — slept  little  or  none" — 
such  are  frequent  entries  in  a  Diary  which  he 
kept  during  most  of  this  period,  and  which  is 
fortunately  preserved.*  In  charge  often  of  an 
advance  station,  he  was  sometimes  so  near  the 
enemy  that  he  could  hear  them  at  work  with 
their  pickaxes,  and  his  men  could  distinguish 
their  countersign!  as  it  echoed  from  their  Grand 
Rounds  faintly  through  the  midnight.  Once, 
probably,  exposed  to  a  hot  fire  from  a  ship  in 
the  bay  and  a  floating  battery,  he  marched  down 
to  repulse  the  British  from  a  landing  at  Lech- 
mere's  Point.  The  following  is  his  own  account 
of  the  affair,  November  ninth,  Thursday. 

"1  o'cl.  P.  M.  An  alarm.  The  Regulars 
landed  at  Lechmere's  Point,  to  take  off  cattle. 
Our  works  were  immediately  all  manned,  and  a 
detachment  sent  to  receive  them,  who  were 

*  We  give  it  entire  in  the  Appendix  to  this  Volume.     See 
App.  C. 
fe.  g.  "Hamilton." 

5 


50  N  A  T  H  A  N     H  A  L  E  . 

obliged,  it  being  high  water,  to  wade  through 
water  near  waist  high.  While  the  enemy  were 
landing,  we  gave  them  a  constant  cannonade 
from  Prospect  Hill.  Our  party  having  got  on 
to  the  point,  marched  in  two  columns,  one  on 
each  side  of  the  hill,  with  a  view  to  surround 
the  enemy,  but  upon  the  first  appearance  of 
them,  they  made  their  boats  as  fast  as  possible. 
While  our  men  were  marching  on  to  the  point, 
they  were  exposed  to  a  hot  fire  from  a  ship  in 
the  bay  and  a  floating  battery — also  after  they 
had  passed  the  Hill.  A  few  shot  were  fired 
from  Bunker's  Hill.  The  damage  on  our  side  is 
the  loss  of  one  Rifleman  taken,  and  3  men 
wounded,  one  badly,  and  it  is  thought  10  or 
more  cattle  carried  off.  The  Rifleman  taken 
was  drunk  in  a  tent,  in  which  he  and  the  one 
who  received  the  worst  wound  were  placed  to 
take  care  of  the  cattle,  horses  &c.,  and  give 
notice  in  case  the  enemy  should  make  an  at 
tempt  upon  them.  The  tent  they  were  in  was 
taken.  What  the  loss  was  on  the  side  of  the 
enemy  we  cannot  yet  determine." 


NATHAN     HALE.  51 

With  the  exception,  perhaps,  of  the  affair  just 
narrated — and  during  the  erection  by  his  com 
pany,  the  succeeding  spring,  of  a  breastwork  in 
Dorchester,  in  a  situation  very  much  exposed  to 
British  balls — and  once  also  in  a  trip  to  one  of 
the  islands  in  Boston  harbor  to  carry  off  stock — 
Hale  does  not  seem  to  have  been  thrown,  during 
his  stay  around  Boston,  into  any  particular  col 
lision  with  the  enemy.  Yet  he  had  opportuni 
ties  to  distinguish  himself,  and  did  so,  in  other 
ways — and  particularly  in  the  care  he  took  to, 
prepare  his  men,  by  careful  discipline  within 
the  camp,  for  the  onsets  of  the  battle  field — aj' 
duty  urgently  demanded  in  an  army  raw  and 
restless  under  restraint  as  the  American  army 
was  when  first  collected. 

"  It  is  of  the  utmost  importance,"  he  enters 
in  his  Diary,  November  sixth,  "  that  an  officer 
should  be  anxious  to  know  his  duty,  but  of 
greater  that  he  should  carefully  perform  what 
he  does  know.  The  present  irregular  state  of 
the  army  is  owing  to  a  capital  neglect  in  both 
of  these  [points.]" — "Studied,"  he  enters  No- 


52  NATHAN     HALE. 

vember  seventh,  "  the  method  of  forming  a  regi 
ment  for  a  review,  [the]  manner  of  arraying 
the  companies,  also  of  marching  round  the 
reviewing  officers" — and  he  proceeds  to  write 
down  carefully  and  at  length  minute  directions, 
from  the  General  Orders,  for  the  guards.  The 
knowledge  of  the  military  art  which  it  is  thus 
obvious  Hale  took  pains  to  secure,  he  was  able 
to  apply  in  a  manner  highly  conducive  to  the 
public  good.  His  own  company,  from  the  skill 
and  taste  with  which  he  managed  it,  soon  be 
came  a  model  for  others,  particularly  in  the 
adoption  of  a  simple  uniform — an  example 
which  was  noticed  with  applause  by  officers  and 
companies  generally,  and  which  was  extensively 
followed. 

When  in  November,  1775,  the  army  was 
threatened  with  dissolution  by  the  expiration  of 
enlistments,  Hale  rendered  conspicuous  service. 
He  cheered  General  Lee,  and  other  officers, 
when  sadly  cast  down  by  the  prospect,  and 
going  around  in  person  to  the  men,  urged  them, 
by  every  patriotic  consideration  which  he  could 


NATHAN     HALE.  53 

address,  to  remain  and  fight  the  battles  of  their 
country  —  and  not  content  with  this,  in  the  case 
of  his  own  company,  promising  them  his  own 
wages  if  they  would  tarry  for  a  given  period, 
nobly  and  promptly  redeemed  his  pledge  by 
borrowing  the  money  of  a  brother  officer  on  the 
credit  of  his  own  advance  pay.  Here  is  an 
entry  which  he  made  of  the  fact,  in  part,  Tues 
day,  November  twenty-eighth,  1775,  in  his 
Diary  —  which  we  give,  with  his  name  appended, 
to  serve  also  as  &fac  simile  of  his  hand  writing. 


When   Congress    had   decided   upon   a   new 
establishment,  Hale  was  one  of  ten  officers,  who, 

upon  the  first  offer  of  a  paper  for  the  purpose, 

5* 


54  N  A  T  H  A  N     H  A  L  E  . 

put  down  their  names  for  new  commissions,  and 
both  in  camp,  and  in  that  journey  home  to  which 
reference  has  already  been  made,  he  labored 
assiduously  to  procure  recruits.  It  is  obvious 
that  the  soldiers,  particularly  of  his  own  com 
pany,  were  exceedingly  attached  to  him.  He 
had  charge  of  their  clothing,  their  rations,  their 
wages.  Many  are  the  entries  in  his  Camp-Book 
of  his  trips  from  Winter  Hill  to  Cambridge,  or 
Mystic,  for  money  and  continental  stores,  and 
he  notes  "  ill  usage  upon  the  score  of  provisions" 
as  the  chief  reason  why  the  soldiers  generally, 
November  twenty-third,  would  not  extend  their 
term  of  service. 

When  off  duty,  Hale  devoted  much  time  to 
reading  and  reflection,  to  history,  works  of  taste, 
and  to  the  newspapers  and  bulletins  of  the  day. 
A  history  of  Philip,  and  work  of  Young's,  as 
well  as  works  on  the  military  art,  are  particu 
larly  noted  in  his  Diary.  A  poet  of  the  day, 
Timothy  Dwiglit  Junior,  availed  himself  of  the 
young  officer's  literary  taste,  as  well  as  of  his 
'politeness  and  benevolence,'  to  procure  sub- 


NATHAN    HALE.  55 

script-ions  for  his  poem  within  the  circle  of  Hale's 
acquaintance  in  camp. 

Hale  maintained  also  during  this  period  of  his 
life  an  active  correspondence.  He  was  thus 
well  informed  of  important  events  that  trans 
pired  elsewhere,  all  of  which,  as  the  taking  of 
St.  John's,  the  expedition  of  Arnold,  the  capture 
of  prizes  by  American  privateers,  the  menaces 
coastwise  of  the  British  fleet,  he  enters  in  his 
Diary;  and  there  are  many  proofs  in  letters 
addressed  to  him,  at  the  time,*  of  a  careful  and 
affectionate  interest  in  his  welfare  among  a  large 
circle  of  friends  of  both  sexes.  In  these  the 
ladies  are  sure  to  send  him  their  love,  undis 
guised  half  the  time  by  the  cold  phrase  of 
4  compliments,'  and  hope  he  will  "  send  them  a 
line."  His  male  friends  seem  to  long  for  his 
presence  again.  The  sergeants  of  his  own 
company,  subscribing  themselves  his  '  good  old 
friends,'!  regret  services  which  detach  them 


*  Quite  a  number  of  these,  fortunately,  are  preserved, 
te.  g.  John  Hurlburt,  one  of  Hale's  sergeants. 


56  NATHAN     HALE. 

from  his  society.  Some  sergeants  of  other  com 
panies  write  to  ask  '  births '  in  the  army  under 
him* — and  even  among  the  boys,  his  former 
pupils  at  New  London,  there  are  those  who 
assure  him  that,  if  their  <  mothers  would  but 
consent,'  they  would  prefer  being  with  him  to 
"  all  the  pleasures  which  the  company  of  their 
relatives  can  afford. "f 

Camp  life  has  its  amusements  too,  as  well  as 
its  'dreadful  notes  of  preparation.'  Peaceful 
games  of  chance  and  strength  succeed  at  inter 
vals  the  sounds  of  '  armorers  accomplishing  the 
knights,'  and  4  busy  hammers  closing  rivets  up,' 
and  occupy,  with  advantage  to  the  soldier,  sea 
sons  otherwise  of  inactivity.  In  these  Hale  at 
times  participated  at  the  period  now  under  con 
sideration,  as  the  following,  his  own  entries, 
show : 


*  c.  g.  Thomas  Updike  Foster,  sergeant  in  Saltonstall's  com 
pany. 

t  e.  g.  Robert  Latimer,  in  a  letter  dated  New  London,  De 
cember  twentieth,  1775. 


NATHAN     HALE.  57 

u  Oct.  24.  Winter  Hill  came  down  to  wrestle, 
with  a  view  to  find  our  best  for  a  wrestling 
match  to  which  this  hill  was  stumped  by  Pros 
pect,  to  be  decided  on  Thursday  ensuing.  Eve 
ning  prayers  omitted  for  wrestling. 

"  Oct.  26.  Grand  wrestling  match — no  wager 
laid. 

"  Nov.  6.  Day  chiefly  spent  in  jabber  and 
checkers. 

"  Nov.  7.  Rain  pretty  hard  most  of  the 
day — spent  most  of  it  in  the  Major's,  my  own 
and  other  tents  in  conversation — (some  check 
ers.) 

"Nov.  8.  Cleaned  my  gun — played  some 
foot-ball  and  some  checkers." 

At  other  times  of  leisure,  Hale  occupied  him 
self  in  walks  and  rides — often  to  Mystic,  to  dine 
with  his  friend  Colonel  Hall,  or  to  visit  his 
laundress  for  clothes,  or  "  to  get  brick  and  clay 
for  [his]  chimney  "  at  Winter  Hill — sometimes 
to  view  the  works  around  Boston,  at  Cobble 
Hill,  Roxbury,  and  elsewhere — and  sometimes 
u  down  to  Dorchester  with  a  view  to  go  on  upon 


58  N  A  T  H  A  N     H  A  L  E  . 

the  point."  He  often  called  upon  his  brother 
officers  at  Prospect  Hill,  and  was  to  them  espe 
cially  attentive,  when,  as  in  the  case  of  Major 
Brooks  and  Captain  Hull,  they  were  confined 
by  sickness.  He  was  the  frequent  guest  of 
General  Putnam  at  Cambridge — dining  with 
him  often  at  his  quarters — and  strolling  there 
to  introduce  his  friends  from  Connecticut,  as 
they  happened  to  visit  him  in  camp.  Fre 
quently  also  at  the  quarters  of  General  Sullivan, 
General  Lee,  and  General  Spencer,  he  seems  to 
have  been  an  especial  favorite  with  these  officers. 
They  read  to  him  at  times  their  private  advices 
from  Congress,  and  consulted  with  him  in  much 
confidence  about  the  administration  of  the 
army. 

In  the  midst  of  all  this  occupation,  military 
and  social,  Hale  never  forgot  his  duties  of  a 
religious  nature.  "  Captain  Hale  was  a  praying 
man,"  says  Asher  Wright.*  The  services  of 

"  He  prayed  for  his  first  waiter,  when  he  was  sick  with  a 
fever,"  continues  Wright.     "  This  waiter  was  from  New  Lon- 


NATHAN     HALE.  59 

Sunday,  when  performed  in  camp,  he  attended 
with  great  regularity,  as  the  entrie^  in  his  Diary 
show,  of  which  the  following  are  specimens : 

"  Sab.  Oct.  29th.  Went  to  meeting  in  the 
barn — one  exercise. 

"  Sunday,  [Nov.]  5th,  A.  M.  Mr.  Learned 
pr.  John,  13.  19.  excellentissime. 

"Sabbath  Day,  19th.  Mr.  Bird  pr.— one 
service — only  beginning  after  12  o'cl.  Text 
Esther  8th.  6.  For  how  can  I  endure  to  see  the 
evil  that  shall  come  upon  my  people,  or  how 
can  I  endure  to  see  the  destruction  of  my  kin 
dred  ?  The  discourse  very  good — the  same  as 
preached  to  Gen.  Wooster,  his  officers  and  sol 
diers,  at  New  Haven,  and  which  was  again 
preached  at  Cambridge  a  Sabbath  or  two  ago — 
now  preached  as  a  farewell  discourse. 

don.  His  father  came  after  him.  He  recovered  after  a  while, 
but  when  he  was  taken  down,  Captain  Hale  was  a  mind  I 
should  take  his  place.  And  I  did,  and  remained  with  him 
till  he  went  on  to  Long  Island." 


60  NATHAN     HALE. 

"17th.  Sunday.  Went  to  Mistick  to  meet 
ing." 

So  passed,  as  we  have  now  described,  the  first 
six  months  of  Hale's  life  in  the  Army  of  the 
Revolution — without  opportunity  "  to  speak  his 
patriotism  in  the  thunders  of  victorious  bat 
tle  " — but  in  careful  and  praiseworthy  discharge 
of  all  his  other  duties  as  an  officer,  a  man,  and 
a  Christian. 


CHAPTER    III. 

Hale  leaves  the  vicinity  of  Boston  for  New  York.  His  gallant 
capture  of  a  British  sloop  in  the  East  River.  His  station, 
occupation,  patriotism,  attachments,  and  characteristic  mod 
esty,  illustrated  by  letters  from  his  own  pen. 

IN  April,  1776,  with  the  troops  under  General 
Heath,  Hale  removed,  by  way  of  Norwich,  Con 
necticut,  to  NCAV  York. 

Of  the  period  which  follows,  down  to  that 
which  is  signalized  by  his  death — from  April, 
1776  to  the  ensuing  September — we  have  but 
little  to  record — for  here  memorials  almost  fail 
iis.  One  incident  however  occurred,  which 
well  illustrates  the  energy  and  courage  of  his 
nature. 

A  British  Sloop,  laden  with  supplies,  was 
anchored  in  the  East  River  under  the  sixty-four 


62  NATHAN     HALE. 

guns  of  the  British  ship  of  war  Asia,  Captain 
Vandeput,  and  Hale  formed  the  bold  design  of 
capturing  the  vessel.  The  following  is  the 
account  of  the  affair  given  by  Asher  Wright, 
Hale's  own  confidential  camp-attendant,  to  the 
late  Honorable  Andrew  T.  Judson,  Judge  of  the 
United  States  Court  for  the  District  of  Connec 
ticut. 

"  At  the  hour  appointed,"  describes  Wright, 
u  the  party  assembled,  and  crossed  the  river  in 
their  faithful  little  bark,  skimming  so  lightly 
over  the  water  as  to  excite  no  alarm  from  any 
quarter.  They  passed  cautiously  down  by  the 
shore  to  a  point  of  land  nearest  the  sloop,  where 
they  ceased  to  ply  the  oar,  and  waited  for  the 
moon  to  sink  below  the  horizon.  It  was  at  the 
dead  hour  of  the  night,  and  all  was  hushed  in 
silence,  excepting  only  the  watch-man  on  the 
quarter  deck  of  the  Asia.  His  voice  came  in 
the  breeze,  '  all  is  well,'  when  Captain  Hale's 
men  pulled  away  for  the  sloop,  and  soon  found 
themselves  along  side — and  in  an  instant  more 
she  was  boarded,  and  away  she  came  with  Cap- 


N  A  T  H  A  N     II A  L  E  .  63 

tain  Hale  at  the  helm,  and  the  British  tars  in 
the  hold  !  When  she  struck  the  wharf,  this  new 
commander  and  his  American  crew  were  received 
with  three  cheers,  and  soon  the  liberal  hand  of 
Captain  Hale  distributed  the  prize  goods  to  feed 
the  hungry,  and  clothe  the  naked  of  our  own 
army."* 

Of  Hale's  station  and  occupation,  otherwise, 
during  the  period  now  in  question,  in  New  York, 
as  well  as  of  his  patriotism,  attachments,  and 
characteristic  modesty,  some  valuable  hints  are 
furnished  in  the  three  following  letters,  written 
by  him  in  May,  June,  and  August — the  last  a 
week  before  the  battle  of  Flatbush — and  ad 
dressed  to  one  of  his  brothers.  Except  a  portion 
of  the  second,  which  is  but  a  repetition  of  the 

*  To  this  incident  Halo's  correspondent  E.  Marvin  refers,  in 
a  letter  to  him  from  New  London,  dated  June  eleventh,  1776. 
The  following  is  the  passage :  "  Am  much  obliged  for  your  partic 
ular  history  of  the  adventure  aboard  the  prize ;  wish  you  would  ac 
quaint  me  with  every  incident  of  good  or  ill  fortune  which  befalls 
you  in  your  course  of  life.  The  whole  journal  T  hope  some 
time  or  other  to  peruse." 


64  NATHAN     HALE. 

statements  of  the  first,  we  give  them  in  their 
chronological  order. 

"  New  York,  May  30th,  1776. 
"  Dear  Brother. 

"  Your  favor  of  the  9th  of  May,  and  another 
written  at  Norwich,  I  have  received — the  former 
yesterday.  You  complain  of  my  neglecting 
you — I  acknowledge  it  is  not  wholly  without 
reason — at  the  same  time  I  am  conscious  to 
have  written  to  you  more  than  once  or  twice 
within  this  half  year.  Perhaps  my  letters  have 
miscarried. 

"  I  am  not  on  the  end  of  Long  I.  but  in  New 
York,  encamped  about  one  mile  back  of  the 
city.  We  have  been  on  the  Island,  and  spent 
about  three  weeks  there,  but  since  returned. 
As  to  Brigades :  we  spent  part  of  the  Winter  at 
Winter  Hill  in  Gen1  Sullivan's — thence  we  were 
removed  to  Roxbury,  and  annexed  to  Gen1 
Spencer's — from  thence  we  came  to  New  York 
in  Gen1  Heath's ;  on  our  arrival  we  were  put  in 
Gen1  Lord  Sterling's ;  here  we  continued  a  few 
days,  and  were  returned  to  Gen1  Sullivan's ;  on 


NATHANHALE.  65 

his  being  sent  to  the  Northward,  we  were  re 
verted  to  Lord  Sterling's,  in  whose  Brigade  we 
now  remain.  In  the  first  detachment  to  the 
Northward  under  Gen1  Thomson,  Webb's  regi 
ment  was  put  down ;  but  the  question  being 
asked  whether  we  had  many  seamen,  and  the 
reply  being  yes,  we  were  erased  and  another  put 
down  in  our  place. 

"  We  have  an  account  of  the  arrival  of  Troops 
at  Halifax,  thence  to  proceed  on  their  infamous 
errand  to  some  part  of  America. 

"  Majr  Brooks  informed  me  last  evening,  that 
in  conversation  with  some  of  the  frequenters  at 
Head  Quarters,  he  was  told  that  Gen1  Washing 
ton  had  received  a  packet  from  one  of  the  sher 
iffs  of  the  city  of  London,  in  which  was  contained 
the  Debates  at  large  of  both  houses  of  Parlia 
ment — and  what  is  more,  the  whole  proceedings 
of  the  Cabinet.  The  plan  of  the  summer's 
Campaign  in  America  is  said  to  be  communica 
ted  in  full.  Nothing  has  yet  transpired ;  but 
the  prudence  of  our  Gen1  we  trust  will  make 
6* 


66  NATHAN     HALE. 

advantage  of  the  Intelligence.  Gen1  Gates 
(formerly  Adj*  Gen1  now  Majr  Gen1)  is  gone  to 
Philadelphia  probably  to  communicate  the  above. 

"  Some  late  accounts  from  the  northward  are 
very  unfavorable,  and  would  be  more  so  could 
they  be  depended  on.  It  is  reported  that  a  fleet 
has  arrived  in  the  River ;  upon  the  first  notice 
of  which  our  army  thought  it  prudent  to  break 
up  the  siege  and  retire — that  in  retreating  they 
were  attack'd  and  routed,  Numbers  kill'd,  the 
sick,  most  of  the  cannon  and  stores  taken.  The 
account  is  not  authentic :  We  hope  it  is  not 
true. 

"  It  would  grieve  every  good  man  to  consider 
what  unnatural  monsters  we  have  as  it  were  in 
our  bowels.  Numbers  in  this  Colony,  and  like 
wise  in  the  western  part  of  Connecticut,  would 
be  glad  to  imbrue  their  hands  in  their  Country's 
Blood.  Facts  render  this  too  evident  to  admit 
of  dispiite.  In  this  city  such  as  refuse  to  sign 
the  Association  have  been  required  to  deliver 


NATHAN     HALE.  67 

up  their  arms.     Several  who  refused  to  comply 
have  been  sent  to  prison. 

"It  is  really  a  critical  Period.  America  be 
holds  what  she  never  did  before.  Allow  the 
whole  force  of  our  enemy  to  be  but  30,000,  and 
these  floating  on  the  Ocean,  ready  to  attack  the 
most  unguarded  place.  Are  they  not  a  formid 
able  Foe  ?  Surely  they  are." 

"  New  York,  June  3d,  1776. 
"  Dear  Brother. 

«  *  *  *  Continuance  or  removal  from 
here  depends  wholly  upon  the  operations  of  the 

War. 

"  It  gives  pleasure  to  every  friend  of  his  coun 
try  to  observe  the  health  which  prevails  in  our 
army.  Dr.  Eli  (Surgeon  of  our  Reg1)  told  me 
a  few  days  since,  there  was  not  a  man  in  our 
Reg1  but  might  upon  occasion  go  out  with  his 
Firelock.  Much  the  same  is  said  of  other 
Regiments. 

"  The  army  is  every  day  improving  in  disci 
pline,  and  it  is  hoped  will  soon  be  able  to  meet 


68  NATHAN     HALE. 

the  enemy  at  any  kind  of  play.  My  company 
which  at  first  was  small,  is  now  increased  to 
eighty,  and  there  is  a  Sergeant  recruiting,  who 
I  hope  has  got  the  other  10  which  completes 
the  Company. 

"  We  are  hardly  able  to  judge  as  to  the  num 
bers  the  British  army  for  the  Summer  is  to  con 
sist  of — undoubtedly  sufficient  to  cause  us  too 
much  bloodshed. 

"  Gen1  Washington  is  at  the  Congress,  being 
sent  for  thither  to  advise  on  matters  of  conse 
quence. 

"  I  had  written  you  a  complete  letter  in 
answer  to  your  last,  but  missed  the  opportunity 
of  sending  it. 

"  This  will  probably  find  you  in  Coventry — if 
so  remember  me  to  all  my  friends — particularly 
belonging  to  the  Family.  Forget  not  frequently 
to  visit  and  strongly  to  represent  my  duty  to 
our  good  Grandmother  Strong.  Has  she  not 
repeatedly  favored  us  with  her  tender,  most  im 
portant  advice  ?  The  natural  Tie  is  sufficient, 
but  increased  by  so  much  goodness,  our  grati- 


NATHAN     HALE.  69 

tude  cannot  be  too  sensible.  I  always  with 
respect  remember  Mr.  Huntington,  and  shall 
write  to  him  if  time  admits.  Pay  Mr.  Wright 
a  visit  for  me.  Tell  him  Asher  is  well — he  has 
for  some  time  lived  with  me  as  a  waiter.  I  am 
in  hopes  of  obtaining  him  a  Furlough  soon,  that 
he  may  have  opportunity  to  go  home,  see  his 
friends,  and  get  his  Summer  clothes. 

"  Asher  this  moment  told  me  that  our  Brother 
Joseph  Adams  was  here  yesterday  to  see  me, 
when  I  happened  to  be  out  of  the  way.  He  is 
in  Col.  Parson's  Reg*.  I  intend  to  see  him  to 
day,  and  if  possible  by  exchanging  get  him  into 
my  company. 

"  Yours  affectionately,  N.  HALE. 

u  P.  S.  Sister  Rose  talked  of  making  me 
some  Linen  cloth  similar  to  Brown  Holland  for 
Summer  wear.  If  she  has  made  it  desire  her 
to  keep  it  for  me.  My  love  to  her,  the  Doctor, 
and  little  Joseph." 


70  NATHAN     HALE. 

"  New  York,  Aug.  20th,  1776. 
"  Dear  Brother, 

44 1  have  only  time  for  a  hasty  letter.  Our 
situation  has  been  such  this  fortnight  or  more 
as  scarce  to  admit  of  writing.  We  have  daily 
expected  an  action — by  which  means,  if  any  one 
was  going,  and  we  had  letters  written,  orders 
were  so  strict  for  our  tarrying  in  camp  that  we 
could  rarely  get  leave  to  go  and  deliver  them. — 
For  about  6  or  8  days  the  enemy  have  been 
expected  hourly,  whenever  the  wind  and  tide  in 
the  least  favored.  We  keep  a  particular  look 
out  for  them  this  morning.  The  place  and 
manner  of  attack  time  must  determine.  The 
event  we  leave  to  Heaven.  Thanks  to  God !  we 
have  had  time  for  compleating  our  works  and 
receiving  our  reenforcements.  The  Militia  of 
Connecticut  ordered  this  way  are  mostly  arrived. 
Col.  Ward's  Reg4  has  got  in.  Troops  from  the 
Southward  are  daily  coming.  We  hope  under 
God,  to  give  a  good  account  of  the  Enemy  when 
ever  they  choose  to  make  the  last  appeal. 

"  Last  Friday  Night,  two  of  our  fire  vessels 


NATHAN     HALE.  71 

(a  Sloop  and  Schooner)  made  an  attempt  upon 
the  shipping  up  the  River.  The  night  was  too 
dark,  the  wind  too  slack  for  the  attempt.  The 
Schooner  which  was  intended  for  one  of  the 
Ships  had  got  by  before  she  discovered  them ; 
but  as  Providence  would  have  it,  she  run  athwart 
a  bomb-catch,  which  she  quickly  burned.  The 
Sloop  by  the  light  of  the  former  discovered  the 
Phoenix — but  rather  too  late — however  she  made 
shift  to  grapple  her,  but  the  wind  not  proving 
sufficient  to  bring  her  close  along  side,  or  drive 
the  flames  immediately  on  board,  the  Phcenix 
after  much  difficulty  got  her  clear  by  cutting 
her  own  rigging.  Sergt  Fosdick  who  com 
manded  the  above  sloop,  and  four  of  his  hands, 
were  of  my  company,  the  remaining  two  were 
of  this  Reg1. 

"  The  Gen1  has  been  pleased  to  reward  their 
bravery  with  forty  dollars  each,  except  the  last 
man  who  quitted  the  fire  Sloop,  who  had  fifty . 
Those  on  board  the  Schooner  received  the  same. 


72  NATHAN     HALE. 

"  I  must  write  to  some  of  my  other  brothers 
lest  you  should  not  be  at  home.     Remain 
"  Your  friend  and  Brother 
"  Mr.  Enoch  Hale."  "  N.  HALE." 

Upon  the  day  succeeding  that  in  which  the 
letter  last  quoted  was  written,  Hale  began  again 
to  note  in  his  Diary — a  practice  which  for  some 
time  just  previous  he  had  omitted — and  the  fol 
lowing,  in  reference  to  the  chief  events  of  this 
and  the  two  succeeding  days,  are  the  last  brief 
entries  which  ever  flowed  from  his  pen. 

"  Aug.  21st.  Heavy  Storm  at  Night.  Much 
and  heavy  Thunder.  Capt.  Yan  Wyke,  a  Lieut, 
and  Ens.  of  Col°  Mc.DougalFs  Reg*  kilPd  by  a 
Shock.  Likewise  one  man  in  town,  belonging 
to  a  Militia  Reg1  of  Connecticut.  The  Storm 
continued  for  two  or  three  hours,  for  the  great 
est  part  of  which  time  [there]  was  a  perpetual 
Lightning,  and  the  sharpest  I  ever  knew. 

"  22d  Thursday.  The  Enemy  landed  some 
troops  down  at  the  Narrows  on  Long  Island. 

"  23d  Friday.     Enemy  landed  more  troops — 


NATHAN     HALE.  73 

News  that  they  had  marched  up  and  taken 
Station  near  Flatbush,  their  advce  Gds  being  on 
this  side  near  the  woods — that  some  of  our 
Riflemen  attacked  and  drove  them  back  from 
their  posts,  burnt  2  stacks  of  hay,  and  it  was 
thought  kilPd  some  of  them — this  about  12  o'cl. 
at  Night.  Our  troops  attacked  them  at  their 
station  near  Flatb.  routed  and  drove  them  back 
H  mile." 

But  three  days  more,  and  that  storm  of  war 
whose  portentous  approaches  Hale  thus  hur 
riedly  sketches,  descended  in  fury — and  we  now 
reach  the  period  marked  by  that  great  event 
which  signalises  his  character,  and  closes  his 
life. 

7 


CHAPTER    IV. 

Circumstances  of  the  American  and  British  armies  when  Hale 
undertook  his  fatal  mission.  The  office  of  a  spy — its  danger — 
its  ignominy.  Col.  Knowlton  commissioned  by  Gen.  "Wash 
ington  to  procure  some  one  to  undertake  it.  He  appeals  to 
American  officers,  and  to  a  French  serjeant  in  the  army. 
They  all  refuse,  save  Hale,  who  readily  volunteers  for  the 
duty.  His  fellow-officers  warmly  remonstrate — but  in  vain. 
Hale  nobly  persists  in  his  purpose. 

To  understand  properly  the  event  to  which 
allusion  is  made  at  the  close  of  the  last  chapter, 
j  let  us  look  first  at  the  circumstances  in  which  it 
\  originated. 

The  disastrous  battle  of  Long  Island  had  been 
fought,*  and  the  American  troops,  filled   with 


*It  does  not  appear  that  Hale  participated  in  this  battle.  He 
was  however  at  the  time,  on  the  Long  Island  side.  Asher 
Wright  said  that  in  the  retreat  to  New  York,  one  of  the  last 
things  done  by  him  was  to  bring  over  Halo's  baggage. 


NATHAN     HALE.  75 

despair,  had  retreated  to  the  Island  of  New 
York.  As  if  the  thunder  of  the  British  arms 
had  deafened  their  ears  to  the  solicitations  of 
patriotism,  the  militia  began  to  desert  by  com 
panies,  and  even  by  entire  regiments.  Of  those 
that  remained,  fresh  as  they  were  from  the 
workshop  and  the  field,  a  large  portion  was  im 
patient  of  restraint,  and  clamorous  for  pay. 
One-fourth  of  them  were  on  the  sick  list.  One- 
third  were  without  tents.  They  had  clothes, 
shoes,  and  blankets,  only  for  a  summer  cam 
paign,  and  winter  was  approaching.  Food  and 
forage  were  difficult  to  obtain.  The  military 
chest  was  entirely  empty  of  money,  and  had 
been  so  for  two  months.  In  positive  suffering 
then  from  want  of  supplies — without  confi 
dence — without  subordination — importunate  in 
complaints — the  American  army — fourteen  thou 
sand  only  fit  for  duty — in  the  early  part  of 
September,  1776,  lay  stretched  along — detached, 
agitated,  and  full  of  gloom — from  the  Battery 
in  New  York  far  to  Kingsbridge. 

And  facing  them  from  the  extreme  southern 


76  NATHAN     HALE. 

point  of  Long  Island  to  a  point  opposite  the 
Heights  of  Harlem — posted  at  Bedford,  Bush- 
wick,  Newtown,  Flushing,  and  Hellgate — riding 
in  ships  and  transports  whose  formidable  batter 
ies  frowned  on  the  American  shores  from  the 
Narrows  to  Panlus  Hook,  and  up  the  East  River 
to  Flushing  Bay — was  arranged  a  British  army 
of  not  less  than  twenty-five  thousand  men — a 
land  and  naval  force  magnificently  equipped 
with  artillery,  military  stores,  and  warlike  mate 
rials  of  every  kind,  for  the  special  purpose,  as 
it  was  proclaimed,  of  "  looking  down  and  ending 
forever  the  opposition  of  the  rebels" — and  which, 
under  the  command  of  the  most  able  and  dis 
tinguished  generals,  was  now  in  the  first  flush 
of  victory — was  haughty,  emulous,  impatient  of 
farther  conquest,  and  confident  of  success. 

What  now,  under  these  relative  circumstances 
of  the  two  armies,  would  be  General  Howe's 
next  step  ?  It  was  a  question,  it  Avill  be  seen  at 
once,  of  infinite  moment  to  Washington,  and  his 
enfeebled,  dispirited  army.  Would  the  British 
make  a  direct  attack  upon  the  city  of  New 


NATHAN     HALE.  77 

York  ?  Or  would  they  land  above  the  city — at 
Turtle  Bay — or  Horcn's  Hook  ?  Or  cross  from 
Montresor's  Island  to  Harlem?  Or  passing 
higher  up  the  Sound,  land  at  Morrisania  or 
Throg's  Point — or  perhaps,  sailing  around  Long- 
Island,  land  at  some  point  on  the  Main  still 
farther  east?  Would  they  attempt  above  or 
below  Kingsbridge,  to  cut  off  the  communica 
tion  of  the  American  army  with  the  country  ? 
Or  was  it  their  purpose,  moving  as  they  did  fre 
quently  with  their  ships  of  war  up  the  North 
River,  to  make  a  descent  from  this  direction — 
at  Blooming-dale,  or  elsewhere  ?  Or  would  they 
simultaneously  land  parties  on  the  North  River 
side,  and  the  East  River  side — stretch  across 
New  York  Island,  and  intrench  themselves — 
and  supporting  their  flanks  with  shipping,  cut 
off  the  divisions  of  the  American  army,  and 
hem  in  the  town  ? 

Upon  the  solution  of  these  questions — with 

regard  to  which  Washington  writes,  September 

sixth,  "  we  cannot  learn,  nor  have  we  been  able ' 

to  procure  the  least  information  of  late  " — de- 

7* 


78  NATHANHALE. 

pended  at  this  time  the  fate  of  the  American 
army.  Should  it — forced  as  it  then  was,  in 
entire  uncertainty  as  to  the  real  point  of  attack, 
to  guard  very  extensive  lines,  whose  extremities 
were  at  least  sixteen  miles  apart — should  it  be 
concentrated  or  not?  If  so,  at  what  point? 
Should  the  city  of  New  York  be  held  and  de 
fended  at  all  events,  or  evacuated  in  whole,  or 
in  part?  Should  Manhattan  island — lest  a 
hostile  landing  at  Kingsbridge  might  stake  the 
Revolution  on  a  single  battle  against  a  far  supe 
rior  force — be  altogether  abandoned?  Where, 
and  to  what  extent,  should  lines  and  works  of 
defence,  intrenchments,  redoubts,  batteries,  and 
abattis  be  established  ? 

All  these  vital  points,  without  precise  infor 
mation  as  to  the  enemy's  designs,  could  not  be 
settled.  In  vain  to  catch  some  hints  of  these 
designs,  did  American  scouts  venture  near  the 
British  lines.  In  vain  did  American  eyes  strain 
through  the  darkness,  when  night  settled  upon 
the  armies,  in  search  of  some  Hessian  deserter, 


NATHAN     HALE.  79 

allured  by  bounty  land,*  who  might  communi 
cate  the  intentions  of  the  British  generals.  In 
vain  did  American  officers  convene  sad  and 
thoughtful  around  their  beloved  commander, 
and  attempt,  from  the  positions  of  the  foe,  to 
work  out  the  problem  of  their  plan.  All  places 
of  their  own  encampment  seemed  almost  equally 
menaced.  All  points  of  the  British  encamp 
ment  seemed  almost  equally  supported,  and 
ready  to  disgorge  fire  and  death  upon  the  brok 
en-hearted  patriots.  It  was  the  policy  of  Howe 
to  blind — and  thus  far  he  had  succeeded. 

Some  one,  reasoned  Washington,  must  pene 
trate  the  British  camp,  and  lift  this  veil  of 
secrecy,  or  the  American  army  is  lost — and  he 
communicated  this  opinion  to  his  Board  of  Offi 
cers.  The  Board  agreed  fully  with  the  views  of 
the  Commander  in  chief,  and  Colonel  Knowlton 
was  instructed  to  select  some  competent  person 
for  the  hazardous  office. 

An  office  not  alone   hazardous.     What  else 

*  Such  had  been  offered  to  deserters  from  the  British  army. 


80  N  A  T  H  A  N     H  A  L  E  . 

was  it  ?  To  appreciate  the  position  of  Hale,  it 
is  necessary  to  dwell  a  moment  upon  it.  It  was 
an  office  also  ignominious.  In  the  judgment  of 
every  civilized  nation,  in  the  eye  of  all  national 
law,  the  use  of  spies  is  deemed  "  a  clandestine 
practice  and  deceit  in  Avar."  It  is  a  fraud  un 
worthy  of  an  open,  manly  enemy — scarcely 
redeemed  in  motive  by  any  exigency  of  danger — 
and  pregnant  with  the  worst  mischief  in  stimu 
lating,  from  a  sense  of  betrayal,  the  vengeance 
of  a  foe,  and  in  undermining  those  sentiments 
of  honor,  which,  like  shoots  of  sunlight  upon  a 
thunder-clouded  sky,  tend  to  soften  the  black 
ness  of  war. 

The  spy  is  the  companion  of  darkness.  He 
lurks — he  hides — or  if  he  moves  in  the  light,  it 
is  behind  walls,  in  the  shadow  of  trees,  in  the 
loneliness  of  clefts,  under  the  cover  of  hills,  in 
the  gloom  of  ditches,  skulking  with  the  owl, 
the  mole,  or  the  Indian.  Or  if  he  enters  the 
camp  of  an  enemy,  he  insinuates  himself,  and 
winds  treacherously  into  confidence.  Caught, 
his  sure  penalty  is  the  halter.  "  Nathan  Palmer, 


NATHAN     HALE.  81 

a  lieutenant  in  your  King's  service,"  wrote 
General  Putnam  from  his  camp  at  Peekskill  to 
Governor  Try  on,  "  was  taken  in  my  camp  as  a 
spy — he  was  tried  as  a  spy — and  you  may  rest 
assured,  Sir,  he  shall  be  hanged  as  a  spy.  P.  S. 
Afternoon.  He  is  hanged"  This  pithy,  laconic 
epistle,  communicating  the  fate  of  one  tory  agent 
of  the  sort  of  which  we  speak,  during  our 
Revolution,  only  too  truly  describes  the  quick 
aversion,  particularly  of  soldiers,  to  all  those 
who  disguisedly  enter  a  military  camp  to  bear 
off  its  secrets  to  an  enemy,  and  the  instantane- 
ousncss  almost  with  which  such  persons  pass 
from  capture  to  the  gallows.  And  yet,  notwith 
standing  all  this — the  employment  of  a  spy  in 
some  crisis  of  the  last  importance,  is  not  judged 
unworthy  a  great  commander.  His  success  is 
thought  most  meritorious,  and  is  followed,  if 
not  preceded,  by  honors  and  rewards.  Only  a 
sovereign  may  not  ordinarily  command  the 
service — so  is  it  deemed  disgraceful — but  save 
from  an  enemy's  subjects,  he  may  accept  it  Avhen 


82  N  A  T  H  A  N     H  A  L  E  . 

voluntarily  offered,  u  without  offence  to  honor 
or  justice."* 

The  exigency  of  the  American  army  which 
\ve  have  just  described,  would  not  permit  the 
employment,  in  the  service  proposed,  of  any 
ordinary  soldier,  unpractised  in  military  obser 
vation,  and  without  skill  as  a  draughtsman 

least  of  all  of  the  common  mercenary,  to  whom, 
allured  by  the  hope  of  large  reward,  such  tasks 
are  usually  assigned.  Accurate  estimates  of 
the  numbers  of  the  enemy,  of  their  distribution, 
of  the  form  and  position  of  their  various  en 
campments,  of  their  marchings  and  counter- 
marchings,  of  their  concentration  at  one  point  or 
another  of  the  instruments  of  Avar,  but  more  than 
all  of  their  plan  of  attack,  as  derived  from  the 
open  report,  or  the  unguarded  whispers  in  camp 
of  officers  or  men — estimates  of  all  these  things, 
requiring  a  quick  eye,  a  cool  head,  a  practised 
pencil,  military  science,  general  intelligence,  and 
pliable  address,  were  to  be  made.  The  common 


Vattel. 


NATHAN     HALE.  83 

soldier  would  not  answer  the  purpose,  and  the 
mercenary  might  yield  to  the  higher  seductions 
of  the  enemy,  and  betray  his  employers. 

Knowlton,  therefore,  appealed  to  officers — to 
those  of  his  own  regiment,  and  some  of  others, 
assembled  for  the  purpose — and  in  the  name  of 
the  Commander  in  chief  invited  the  service. 
The  solemn  pause  which  followed  his  appeal  was 
long  unbroken — and  not  strangely.  To  meet 
the  enemy  face  to  face — boldly  to  oppose  his 
breast  to  the  reeking  sabre,  the  blood-red  bayo 
net,  and  the  volleys  of  battle,  and  "  foremost 
fighting  fall" — here  was  the  soldier's  true  place, 
and  "  Honor  decked  the  turf  that  wrapped  his 
prostrate  clay."  But  to  play  the  spy — the  hated 
spy — and  an  officer  to  do  it !  It  was  too  irre 
deemably  humiliating — and  one  after  another 
of  the  officers  present,  as  Knowlton  repeated 
his  appeal  individually,  declined. 

His  task  seemed  hopeless.  He  appealed  in 
his  extremity,  it  is  said,  to  a  French  serjeant  who 
had  served  in  the  French  War,  trusting  that  a 


84  NATHAN     HALE. 

sense  of  shame  in  his  breast  less  poignant,  and 
the  spirit,  in  him  remarkable,  for  hazardous  ad 
venture,  might  induce  him  to  undertake.  "  No ! 
no!" — he  replied  promptly.  "I  am  ready  to 
fight  the  British  at  any  place  and  time,  but  I  do 
not  feel  willing  to  go  among  them  to  be  hung  up 
like  a  dog! " — What  was  to  be  done  ? 

From  the  group  of  reluctant,  half-resentful 
officers — at  the  moment  when  all  hope  for  the 
enterprise  seemed  at  an  end,  and  the  heart  of 
Knowlton,  saddened  with  the  thought  of  future 
misfortune,  was  fast  yielding  to  the  torture  of 
disappointment — there  came  a  voice  with  the 
painfully  thrilling,  yet  cheering  words — "  I  will 
undertake  it!"  That  was  the  voice  of  Captain 
NATHAN  HALE.  He  had  come  late  into  the 
assembly  of  officers.  Scarcely  yet  recovered 
from  a  severe  illness,  his  face  still  pale,  without 
his  accustomed  strength  of  body,  yet  firm  and 
ardent  as  ever  of  soul,  lie  volunteered  at  once, 
reckless  of  its  danger,  and  though  doubtless 


NATHAN     HALE.  85 

% 

•appalled,  not  vanquished  by  its  disgrace,  to  dis 
charge  the  repudiated  trust. 

His  family,  his  fellow-officers,  many  of  them, 
remonstrated  at  his  choice.  Young,  ardent, 
educated,  accomplished,  the  darling  of  the  sold 
iery,  the  pride  of  his  commander,  why  should 
he  put  life  and  reputation  thus  at  hazard  ?  The 
legitimate  stratagems  of  war  are  "  feints  and 
evasions  performed  under  no  disguise — are 
familiar  to  commanders — form  a  part  of  their 
plans,  and  executed  with  tact,  exact  admiration 
from  the  enemy  " — but  who  respects  the  char 
acter  of  a  spy,  assuming  the  garb  of  friendship 
but  to  betray?  "Did  his  country  demand  the 
moral  degradation  of  her  sons  to  advance  her 
interests  ? ?'  Would  he  not  have  ample  oppor 
tunity,  in  the  progress  of  the  war,  by  exertions 
daily  felt,  "  to  give  his  talents  and  his  life, 
should  it  be  so  ordered,  to  the  sacred  cause  to 
which  he  was  pledged  ?  "  Why  then,  by  one 
fatal  act,  crush  forever  "  the  power  and  the 
opportunity  Heaven  offered  him  for  his  country's 
8 


86  NATHAN     HALE. 

glory,  and  his  own  happiness?"  Why  sadden 
the  hearts  of  his  doating  parents,  his  relatives, 
and  friends — looking  and  expecting  as  they  all 
were  to  see  him  climb  undisguisedly  and  grace 
fully  the  rounds  of  Fame's  military  ladder — 
why  cloud  all  this  fond  expectation  with  the 
dark  martyrdom  of  a  felon  ? 

Such  were  the  considerations  addressed  to 
Hale,  with  even  tearful  entreaty,  by  some  of  his 
brother  soldiers,  and  by  none  with  more  assidu 
ity  than  by  General  William  Hull,  then  an  offi 
cer  of  the  same  grade  in  the  army  with  Hale, 
and  who,  for  three  years  Hale's  classmate  in 
College,*  and  his  intimate  afterwards  in  the 
camp,  enforced  his  views  with  all  the  pride 
natural  to  the  soldier,  and  with  all  the  warmth 
of  private  friendship.  Hear  Hale's  reply ! 

" 1 think  I owe  to  my  country  the  accomplish 
ment  of  an  object  so  important,  and  so  much 
desired  by  the  Commander  of  her  armies— and 


*IIull  Graduated 


N  A  T  H  A  N     H  A  L  E  .  87 

I  know  no  other  mode  of  obtaining  the  informa 
tion^  than  by  assuming"  a  disguise,  and  passing 
into  the  enemy's  camp.  I  am  fully  sensible  of 
the  consequences  of  discovery  and  capture  in 
such  a  situation.  But  for  a  year  I  have  been 
attached  to  the  army,  and  have  not  rendered  any 
material  service,  while  receiving-  a  compensation 
for  which  I  make  no  return.  Yet  I  am  not 
influenced  by  the  expectation  of  promotion  or 
pecuniary  reward.  I  wish  to  be  useful,  and 
every  kind  of  service  necessary  for  the  public 
good,  becomes  honorable  by  being  necessary. 
If  the  exigencies  of  my  country  demand  a  pecu 
liar  service,  its  claims  to  the  performance  of 
that  service  are  imperious!" 

He  spoke,  says  Hull,  "  with  warmth  and  de 
cision!" 

What  grandeur  of  self-sacrifice — what  appre 
ciation  intense  as  rare,  of  the  obligations  of 
duty — what  glorious  abandonment  of  fear  even 
where  fear  is  deemed  a  virtue — what  sublime 
confidence  in  the  redeeming  power  of  a  holy 


88  N  A  T  H  A  N     HALE. 

purpose — immortalize  these  the  words  of  the 
martyr  Hale,  as  he  respectfully  confronts  the 
solicitations  of  his  friends,  and  firmly,  move- 
lessly,  bolts  and  bars  himself  within  his  noble 
resolution ! 

True,  military  pride  revolts  at  the  disgrace 
which  I  propose  to  undergo,  he  reasons.  True, 
the  mean  death  that  awaits  me  with  the  enemy, 
under  the  sanction  of  national  law,  should  I 
fail  in  the  undertaking.  True,  my  kindred,  my 
friends,  all  to  whom  I  am  bound  by  the  sweet 
ties  of  love,  may  have  to  mourn  my  loss  in  an 
employment  from  which  all  dreams  of  greatness 
flee.  But  pressing  as  are  all  these  considera 
tions — delicate  and  hazardous,  in  every  view,  as 
is  the  task — "  the  soldier  should  never  consult 
his  fears  when  duty  calls." 

It  is  the  wish  of  the  Commander  in  chief. 
Would  he  ask  such  a  service — and  from  an 
officer — if  he  did  not  deem  it  utterly  vital  to 
the  army  ?  The  gloom  which  a  triumphal  foe 
casts  over  the  American  cause  is  awful — if  the 


NATHAN    HALE.  89 

spy  can  lift  it,  why  not  the  end  sanctify  the 
means,  and  I  that  spy — I  that  have  not  been 
able  hitherto  "to  render  any  material  service?" 
The  liberty  of  three  millions  of  people,  freshly 
risen  to  vindicate  their  rights,  and  now  rocking 
at  hazard  in  the  stormy  cradle  of  war,  is  staked 
on  the  particular  enterprise  in  prospect.  Its 
solitude,  its  darkness,  its  craft,  its  hypocrisy,  its 
waste  and  sacrifice  of  the  soldier's  honor,  its 
last  horrible  penalty — may  these  not  all  be  vin 
dicated  by  the  patriotic  spirit  with  which  they 
may  be  endured,  and  by  the  glorious  boon  which 
it  may  be  the  spy's  fortune  to  offer  to  his  bleed 
ing,  imperilled  country?  The  importance  of 
the  service  outweighs  every  other  considera 
tion — "I  go!" — And  he  presented  himself  to 
General  Washington. 


CHAPTER  V. 

Hale,  after  receiving  instructions  from  General  Washing-ton, 
starts  upon  his  expedition,  accompanied  by  Stephen  Hemp- 
stead,  a  confidential  soldier  of  his  own  company.  They 
reach  Norwalk,  Connecticut.  Hale  here  assumes  a  disguise, 
parts  with  his  companion,  and  leaves  for  Long  Island  in  the 
sloop  Huntington,  Captain  Pond.  Safe  passage  across  the 
Sound.  His  journey  to  New  York,  and  its  risks. 

RECEIVING  from  the  Commander  in  chief  partic 
ular  instructions,  and  a  general  order  upon  all 
the  American  sloops  or  galleys  in  the  Sound  to 
convey  him  across  to  any  point  upon  Long  Island 
which  he  should  designate,  Hale,  about  the  mid 
dle  of  September,  bearing  in  his  hands  materials 
for  a  disguise,  and  accompanied  by  Stephen 
Hempstead,  a  confidential  soldier  of  his  own  com 
pany,  left  the  Camp  at  Harlem  Heights,  intend 
ing  to  cross  the  Sound  by  the  first  opportunity. 

Many  vessels  of  the  enemy  were  at  this  time 
cruising  along  East  River,  and  in  the  Sound. 
Their  guns  might  be  heard,  at  frequent  inter- 


NATHAN    HALE.  91 

vals,  reverberating  along  the  Main  as  some 
adventurous  Yankee  craft,  small  boat  or  galley, 
glided  out  from  some  bay  or  inlet,  and  provoked 
pursuit.  Hostile  scouting  and  forage  parties 
too,  lined  the  Long  Island  shore,  and  no  friendly 
flag  appeared — not  even  one  of  those  little  pri 
vateering  whaleboats,  whose  press-gangs  or  crews 
of  well  armed  volunteers,  so  often  at  this  period, 
and  sometimes  so  uncavalierly,  annoyed  the 
British  and  tories — until  Hale  and  his  compan 
ion  reached  -Xorwalk,  fifty  miles  up  the  Sound 
on  the  Connecticut  shore.  Here  they  found 
one  or  two  row-galleys,  and  the  armed  sloop 
Hunting-ton,  commanded  by  Captain  Pond.  The 
sloop.  Hale  quickly  engaged. 

Thus  far  he  had  come  upon  a  friendly  shore — 
among  his  own  countrymen — where  here  and 
there  only  some  powerless  tory  shrank  from  his 
sight  as  he  glided  by  in  the  undress  of  a  Conti 
nental  officer.*  He  was  now  to  pass  to  a  shore 


*  "  He  had  on  a  frock,  when  I  last  saw  him,  made  of  white 
liiu'ii,  and  fringed,  such  as  officers  used  to  wear.     He  was  too 


NATHAN     HALE. 

occupied,  or  controlled  to  a  great  extent,  by  the 
British  and  their  abettors.  How  then  disguise 
himself?  What  character  should  he  assume  as 
best  calculated  to  lull  suspicion,  and  promote 
the  opportunities  he  desired?  He  decided  upon 
one  to  him  perfectly  familiar — in  which  his  own 
experience  had  given  him  ease  and  self-posses 
sion,  and  which  from  its  unassuming  and  some 
what  itinerant  nature,  was  calculated,  in  those 
days  when  men  rarely  stirred  abroad  without 
watchwords  and  passes,  to  engender  confidence, 
or  at  least  not  to  awaken  an  active  jealousy. 
He  was  to  play  the  Schoolmaster !  * 

Stripping  off  his  uniform  then,  he  placed  it, 
together  with  his  military  commission,  and  all 
the  papers  he  had  with  him,  public  or  private, 
save  perhaps  one  to  be  shortly  mentioned,  in  the 
hands  of  his  companion  Hempstead.  To  these 

good  looking  to  go  so.     He  could  not  deceive.     Some  scrubby 
fellow  ought  to  have  gone."     Testimony  of  Asher  \Vricjlit. 

*  Hempstead  says  that  Hale  told  him  he  intended  to  play 
"  the  Dutch  Schoolmaster."  Probably  so — not  seriously,  how 
ever — but  only  by  way  of  jest. 


NATHAN     HALE.  93 

he  added  his  silver  shoe  buckles,  remarking  that 
these  "  would  not  now  comport  with  his  character 
as  Schoolmaster."  His  watch  also  he  is  reported 
to  have  handed  to  his  friend,  but  after  a  moment 
of  reflection  to  have  resumed  it,  with  the  dec 
laration  that  "he  would  risk  his  watch  where 
he  would  risk  his  life" — as  if  satisfied  that  110 
treachery  lurked  in  that  little  unostentatious 
monitor  of  time,  especially  in  the  hands  of  one, 

"  Who  in  some  noisy  mansion,  skilled  to  rule, 
As  village  master  taught  his  little  school." 

Putting  on  a  plain  suit  of  citizen's  brown 
clothes,  and  a  round  broad-brimmed  hat,  and 
retaining,  it  is  said,  as  an  introduction  to  his 
assumed  calling,  his  college  diploma — the  class 
ical  vellum  on  which  the  Reverend  Doctor 
Napthali  Daggett  had  certified  his  Baccalaur 
eate — he  leaped  on  board  the  sloop  after  the 
night  had  fallen,  bade  his  friend,  with  a  cheerful 
voice,  await  his  return,  or  news  from  him  at 
Norwalk,  and  was  soon  under  way,  the  patriot 


94  NATHAN     HALE. 

spy,  with  a  cool  head,  and  a  bold  heart,  for  the 
head  of  Huiitiiigton  Bay. 

His  passage  across  the  Sound  was  prosperous, 
and  about  two  hours  before  daybreak,  the  little 
craft  which  bore  him,  gliding  midway  between 
Eaton  and  Lloyd's  Necks,  hove  to  near  the  shore 
of  East  or  Great  Neck — an  elevated  tract  of 
land  remarkable  for  its  extensive,  and  pictur 
esque,  but  then  lonely  scenery,  on  t^e  east  side 
of  the  harbor  of  Huntington. 


Semifyft. 


A.  Place  where  Hale  landed,  and  probable  place  of  his  capture. 

A  boat  was  immediately  lowered.  Hale  took 
his  station  in  the  stern,  and  four  stout  oarsmen 
propelled  him  quickly  to  the  shore.  The  point 
where  he  landed  was  a  neighborhood  known  as 


N  A  T  H  A  N     H  A  L  E  .  95 

"the  Cedars"  and  is  still  so  called  at  the  pres 
ent  day.  One  Jesse  Fleet  had  there  a  farm — 
still,  we  understand,  in  the  tenure  of  his  fam 
ily — and  near  his  dwelling  stood  that  also  of 
Widow  Rachel  Chichester,  familiarly  called 
"Mother  Chich" — who,  herself  a  loyalist,  made 
her  house  a  rendezvous,  somewhat  famous,  for 
all  the  tories  of  her  region.  Hale  passed  this 
dangerous  vicinity  in  safety,  and  following  the 
course  of  a  road  which  led  from  the  beach 
towards  a  settlement  on  the  east  side  of  Hunt- 
ington  harbor,  after  about  a  mile's  walk,  reached, 
in  the  centre  of  a  large  field,  the  residence  of 
Mr.  William  Johnson.  Attracted  by  a  light 
streaming  through  a  window,  Hale,  it  is  affirm 
ed  on  good  authority,  approached  the  house 
with  a  quick  and  assured  step.  The  door  was 
opened  by  Mr.  Johnson  himself,  who,  "  after  a 
confidential  interview,  gave  Hale  such  informa 
tion  as  his  case  required,  and  the  comforts  also 
of  a  hearty  breakfast,  and  a  bed  to  rest  upon 
for  a  few  hours.  When  the  morning  had  some- 


96  N  A  T  H  A  N     H  A  L  E  . 

what  advanced,"  says  the  account  from  which 
we  derive  these  facts,  "the  stranger  departed." 

Whither  now,  particularly — by  what  routes — 
with  what  experiences  ?  Would  it  not  be  pleas 
ant  to  know? 

We  have  110  means,  however,  of  tracing  his 
progress  hence  to  New  York,  and  back  to  the 
point  of  his  capture.  His  risk — his  watchful 
ness — his  fatigue — his  hurry — his  delays — his 
skill  of  imposture — his  anxiety  of  mind — his  suf 
fering  from  cold — his  loss  of  sleep — his  bivouac 
by  the  rock,  the  fence,  upon  the  tree  or  in  the 
ditch — his  stealthy  noting  of  posts,  situations, 
numbers,  plans,  by  the  glare  of  day,  or  by  the 
dim  moon-light,  or  flickering  lantern — his  delu 
sion  of  patrols  and  guards — his  conciliation  of 
camps — all  these  the  particulars  of  that  vital 
quest  in  which  Hale  was  engaged,  we  are  left, 
in  the  dearth  of  any  memorials,  to  conjecture. 

Yet  we  are  assured  that  his  survey  was  accu 
rate  and  successful.  We  know  that,  when 
taken,  exact  drawings  of  the  works  of  the 
enemy,  with  accompanying  descriptions  and 


NATHAN     HALE.  97 

notes,  were  found  between  the  soles  of  his 
pumps.  We  know  that  several  days  elapsed 
between  his  departure  from  the  American  camp 
and  his  capture.*  We  know  that  before  he 
reached  New  York,  the  British  Line  had  landed 
two  miles  above  the  city  at  Kip's  Bay— that 
General  Howe  with  one  portion  of  his  victorious 
troops  occupied  the  town— that  General  Clinton 
with  another  portion,  higher  up,  between  "  the 
seventh  and  eighth  milestones,"  lay  stretched 
across  the  whole  island  from  the  East  to  the 
North  River— while  other  portions  of  the  foe 
still  covered  important  points  upon  Long  Island, 
reaching  from  Red  Hook  to  Flushing  Bay,  and 
from  Brooklyn  far  back,  in  patrolling  and  forag 
ing  parties,  into  the  interior.  We  know  also 

Capt.  Hale  went  away — was  gone  about  a  fortnight  before 
I  knew  what  was  become  of  him.— When  he  left  us,  he  told  me 
he  had  got  to  be  absent  awhile,  and  wanted  I  should  take  care 
of  his  things,  and  if  the  army  moved  before  he  returned,  have 
them  moved  too.— When  he  went  away,  he  did  not  tell  me 
where  he  was  going."  Testimony  of  Asher  Wriglit. 

9 


98  NATHAN     HALE. 

^ 

that  Hale  was  not  taken  until,  having  achieved 
his  purpose,  he  was  far  back  on  his  return  to 
the  American  camp. 

He  must,  therefore,  have  passed  through  the 
entire  British  army.  It  is  not  difficult  then, 
under  these  circumstances,  to  conceive  his  posi 
tions  and  occupation. 

\  He  must  have  encountered  on  his  way  En 
glish,  Highlanders,  Waldeckers,  and  Hessians, 
tories  and  refugees,  British  sutlers  and  marau 
ders,  armed  and  unarmed,  and  been  exposed 
momently  to  the  peril  of  detection.  Now  by 
day,  as  he  passed  through  Queen's  County,  we 
can  see  him  listening  from  some  place  of  con 
cealment  to  the  echo  of  the  British  Lighthorse, 
as  they  galloped  past  in  piirsuit  of  some  leading 
whigs — now  watching  some  company  of  British 
Foot,  as  they  scoured  the  country  in  search  of 
grain,  or  lay  quartered  around  some  magazine 
of  forage — now,  remote  from  the  road,  interro 
gating  some  Cowboy  about  the  latest  news  from 
camp — now  upon  the  highway  communicating 
with  some  teamster  impressed  to  carry  hay  and 


mm 


NATHAN    HALK.  \W 

straw  to  New  York — now  in  some  solitary  farm 
house  questioning  some  billeted  soldier  of  the 
foe  over  an  evening  mug  of  cider. 

Now,  as  he  approached  the  chief  encampments, 
we  can  see  him  straining  his  gaze  at  squads  of 
the  enemy  as  they  fortified  their  field-works,  or 
mustered  and  inarched.  Now  by  night  he  is 
counting  at  a  distance  their  fires,  and  listening 
to  the  hum  of  their  tents,  or  walking  in  the 
black  hours  from  watch  to  watch  to  receive  the 
secret  whispers  of  their  fixed  sentinels.  Now, 
probably,  while  the  badge  of  loyalty,  a  red  rib 
bon,  or  a  strip  of  red  flannel,  streamed  from  his 
hat,  he  ventures  within  the  very  bosom  of  their 
camps,  and  there,  smiling  the  tory,  seems  to 
unite  heartily  in  the  coarse  jibe  and  laugh  at  the 
expense  of  those  whose  cause  he  served — or  cat 
echised,  perhaps,  in  his  profession  as  a  School 
master  by  some  group  of  jesting  Redcoats, 

"  to  see  how  much  he  knew, 
If  he  could  read  and  cipher  too," 

he  responds  to  all  their  raillery  with  a  loose 

grace,  and  specimens  of  his  attainments. 
9* 


100  NATHAN     HALE. 

Now  in  the  city  of  New  York,  occupied,  every 
street  of  it,  more  or  less,  with  British  soldiers  bil 
leted  in  houses  left  vacant  by  the  Wliigs,  he  cau 
tiously  pursues  his  way — exposed  each  instant, 
as  was  every  citizen  at  the  time  who  went  abroad, 
to  the  peril  of  arrest,  and  of  confinement  if  his 
loyalty  could  not  at  once  be  made  out — or  to  the 
chance,  perhaps,  of  being  hung  up  at  the  first 
convenient  post,  from  a  misapprehension  of  his 
character,  or  a  conviction  that  he  sympathized 
with  the  rebels — or  liable  to  be  sent  to  suffer  and 
starve  with  the  Long  Island  prisoners  in  the  old 
"  Sugar  House,"  from  whose  fearful  gateway  the 
6 4 Dead  Cart"  already  bore  its  daily  morning 
freight  of  victims,  six  or  eight  in  number — but 
through  all  these  varied  positions,  at  each  peri 
lous  moment  for  observation,  "interpreting  all 
motions,  looks,  and  eyes,"  he  resolutely  pursues, 
and  works  out  that  problem  of  the  British  plan 
given  him  by  his  beloved  Commander  in  chief, 
whose  solution,  it  was  thought  and  hoped,  would 
prove  the  salvation  of  his  country. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Hale  starts  on  his  return  to  the  American  Camp.  Readies  the 
"  Cedars,"  East  Neck,  Huntington,  L.  I.,  where  he  is  cap 
tured.  His  behaviour  on  the  occasion.  Is  carried  to  New 
York.  The  great  fire  in  the  city  sit  the  time.  Is  immediately 
taken  before  Gen.  Howe.  The  head-quarters,  appearance, 
and  character  of  the  British  Commander-in-chief.  Hale's 
heroic  conduct  upon  his  examination.  Is  condemned  as  a 
spy,  and  is  to  be  hung,  "  at  daybreak  the  next  morning." 

FROM  the  midst  of  all  these  dangers,  Hale 
started — undetected  and  unharmed — on  his 
return  to  the  American  camp.  Crossing  the 
East  River,  probably  at  Brooklyn,  he  threaded 
his  way  back  through  the  woods,  and  around  all 
the  British  posts  and  parties  upon  Long  Island, 
until  he  reached  in  safety  that  point  on  the  shore 
near  Huntington  where  he  first  landed,  and 
where  it  had  been  arranged  that  a  boat  of  his 
own  countrymen  should  meet  him,  and  set  him 
over  to  the  Connecticut  Main. 


102  NATHAN     HALE. 

There  he  is  now  at  "  the  Cedars" — alone.  It 
was  morning — early — the  time  of  his  arrival  at 
this  point.  It  was  also  still — a  solitude  com 
pared  with  the  country  he  had  left  behind  him. 
His  ear  could  not  perceive-  the  echo  of  one  hos 
tile  tread,  nor  did  he  dream,  at  such  a  time  and 
place,  remote  as  he  thought  himself  from  any 
British  station,  that  he  could  be  intercepted. 
He  started  forth  to  reconnoitre,  expecting  be 
hind  some  sheltering  headland,  in  some  snug 
inlet,  or  within  some  little  channel  thick  cano 
pied  with  trees  and  bushes,  to  find  the  wished 
for  boat. 

It  did  not,  however,  immediately  appear — 
and  feeling  secure  in  his  treble  disguise  of  dress, 
manner,  and  conversation,  Hale  betook  himself 
for  a  while,  according  to  one  accoimt  of  the 
transaction,  to  that  tory  rendezvous  of  which 
we  have  already  spoken — the  tavern  of  "  Mother 
Chicli "  — and  from  this  point  was  soon  betrayed. 

*  Doctor  Ray,  of  Hunting-ton,  Loll"-  Island,  who  has  given 
much  attention  to  Male's  fate,  says  that  in  a  few  days  after 
Hale  left  Mr.  Johnson,  having-  during  the  intermediate  time 


NATHAN     HALE. 

According  to  another  account,  he  continued  his 
lookout  along  the  shore  for  the  expected  boat 

passed  through  Long  Island  to  New  York  City  und  returned  by 
the  same  route,  making-  memoranda  of  the  information  lie  had 
gathered,  he  again  appeared  at  the  Cedars,  and  feeling  secure  in 
the  simplicity  of  his  dress,  as  well  as  in  his  disguised  manner, 
and  address,  entered  the  tavern  of  Widow  Chichester,  familiar 
ly  called  Mother  Chieh.  "A  number  of  persons,"  proceeds 
Dr.  Ray,  "were  seated  in  the  room,  and,  as  he  had  to  wait 
several  hours  for  the  appearance  of  a  boat  to  convey  him  away, 
he  trusted  to  his  ready  powers  of  conversation  to  make  himself 
agreeable,  and  to  avert  suspicion.  A  moment  after,  a  man 
with  a  familiar  face  left  the  room. 

"Long-  before  the  time  had  elapsed  for  the  arrival  of  the  ves 
sel  expected  by  the  stranger,  Widow  Chichester  suddenly  an 
nounced  to  her  guests  that  a  strange  boat  was  seen  approaching 
the  shore.  This  news  produced  consternation  and  scampering 
among  the  loyalists,  while  the  breast  of  the  stranger  thrilled 
with  joy,  as  he  left  the  bar-room  for  the  beach,  where  the  boat 
had  already  struck.  Soon  he  found  himself  within  range  of 
several  muskets  pointed  at  him — while  a  voice  cried  out,  '  Sur 
render  or  die ! ' 

"  In  a  moment  of  surprise  he  was  seized  by  what  proved  to 
be  a  part}'  from  a  British  armed  vessel  lying  around  the  point 
of  Lloyd's  neck,  out  of  view  from  the  Cedars.  To  his  mortifi 
cation  and  astonishment,  he  discovered  among  the  boat's  crew 


104  NATHAN   HALF:. 

up  to  the  very  moment  of  his  capture.  Be 
these  circumstances  as  they  may  have  been,  all 
the  accounts  we  have  received  agree,  in  the 
main,  as  to  the  manner  in  winch  he  was  finally 
seized — and  it  was  as  we  shall  now  narrate. 

A  barge,  to  all  appearance  such  an  one  as 
Hale  was  expecting,  quietly  impelled,  was  seen 
approaching  the  shore.  Confident  of  the  friend 
ly  character  of  the  crew,  and  expecting  to  receive 
at  once  a  hearty  welcome,  Hale  walked  deliber 
ately  down  to  the  water  side — when  lo !  to  his 
utter  surprise,  as  the  barge  struck  the  shore, 
she  proved  to  he  British ! 

the  very  person  who  had  so  suddenly  left  the  tavern  as  he  en 
tered  the  door,  and  whom  he  now  recognized  as  an  unworthy 
relative. 

"Longer  concealment  was  useless,  and  the  stranger  avowed 
himself  to  be  NATHAN  HALE,  lie  left  the  American  Camp, 
at  Harlem  Heights,  at  the  request  of  Gen.  Washington,  to  ascer 
tain  the  condition  of  the  British  forces  on  Long  Island.  He 
was  taken  to  New  York  by  water,  examined  by  Gen.  Howe,  and 
condemned  to  be  hung  as  a  spy,  which  sentence  was  carried  into 
effect  the  next  day  with  circumstances  of  aggravated  cruelty, 
by  Capt.  Cunningham,  the  Provost  Marshal.'' 


NATHAN     HALE.  105 

He  attempted  at  once  to  retrace  his  steps. 
A  loud  summons  commanded  him  to  stop.  He 
glanced  over  his  shoulder,  and  saw  the  whole 
crew  now  standing  erect,  and  levelling  at  him 
with  their  muskets.  " Surrender  or  die!" — an 
imperious  voice  exclaimed.  He  was  close  within 
reach.  Their  shot  would  inevitably  prove  fatal. 
Escape  was  impossible.  He  turned,  and  com 
plying  with  their  command,  passed  on  board  the 
barge.  The  guardship  to  which  she  belonged — 
the  Halifax,  Captain  Quarme — and  from  which, 
it  is  said,  she  had  been  sent  ashore  for  water — 
lay  off  at  a  little  distance,  hid  from  sight  by  the 
intervening  point  of  Lloyd's  Xeck.  To  the 
deck  of  this  armed  vessel  Hale  was  soon  trans 
ferred — at  last,  and  at  the  very  moment  when 
his  heart  was  palpitating  with  triumph  at  his 
supposed  success — a  prisoner. 

No  suspicion  at  first,  it  has  been  stated,  was 
entertained  of  his  true  character,  till  he  was 
unfortunately  met  and  recognised  by  a  fellow- 
countryman  and  a  relative,  a  tory  and  renegade, 
who,  divulging  his  previous  life  and  actual 


106  NATHAN     HALK. 

situation  in  the  Continental  Army,  and  cor 
roborating  his  statements  in  part  by  the  pro 
duction  of  Hale's  college  diploma,  infamously 
betrayed  him.  Be  this  account  true  or  not— 
and  we  arc  fully  inclined  to  the  opinion  that 
it  is  not— the  fact  of  Hale's  arrest  at  the  point 
described  seems  well  made  out,  and  as  his  cap 
tors  stripped  and  searched  him,  the  plans  and 
memoranda  found  in  his  pumps  proved  his 
strong  accusers.*  What  had  he — a  plain  School 
master — to  do  with  laborious  profiles  of  intrench- 
ments,  forts,  fieldworks,  and  batteries — and  these 
exact  counterparts  of  those  occupied  and  manned 
by  the  royal  army?  Why  write  his  notes — and 
in  the  suspicious  society  of  military  draughts— 
in  Latin — a  contrivance,  it  was  thought,  disguis 
ing  and  unintelligible  to  the  world  generally  as 
the  mysterious  ciphers  of  correspondence,  or 
the  anaglyphs  of  the  pyramids?  Why  too  was 


*  "  They  stopped  him,  searched,  and  found  drawings  of  the 
works,  with  descriptions  in  Latin,  under  the  inner  sole  of  the 
pumps  which  he  wore."  Testimony  of  Asher  Wright. 


NATHAN     HALE.  107 

the  prisoner  at  a  point  so  remote — alone,  and 
hardly  day-break — and  why  did  he  retreat  at 
first  with  such  obvious  disappointment  from  his 
captors  ? 

Here  was  an  indictment  difficult  to  meet. 
How  Hale  attempted  to  meet  it  at  first,  we  know 
not — probably  with  ingenious  pretences,  and  the 
semblance  of  simplicity,  with  careless  self-pos 
session,  and  conciliating  jocularity.  But  even 
the  rudest  sailor  could  interpret  the  facts.  Hale 
must  be  a  spy.  As  such  Captain  Quarme 
treated  him,  though  with  kindness,  we  are 
assured — won  by  the  noble  traits  of  his  char 
acter,  and  regretting,  as  he  afterwards  said, 
"  that  so  fine  a  fellow  had  fallen  into  his  power." 
As  such,  he  soon  sent  him,  as  Avas  his  custom 
with  prisoners,  to  New  York,  in  one  of  the  boats 
of  the  Halifax — back,  under  the  guard  of  a 
detachment  of  his  captors  bearing  the  evidences 
of  his  guilt,  to  that  city,  swarming  with  his 
foes,  from  which  he  had  just  escaped. 

It  was  Saturday,  the  twenty-first  of  Septem 
ber,  when  Hale  reached  his  destination — a  day 


108  NATHAN     HALE. 

long  to  be  remembered  in  American  annals,  not 
only  as  that  which  decided  the  fate  of  the  pat 
riot  we  describe,  but  also  for  the  horror  and 
alarm,  from  another  event,  in  the  midst  of  which 
his  fearful  sentence  was  past.  New  York,  that 
day,  after  two  o'clock  in  the  morning,  was  on  fire. 
From  Whitehall  Slip  the  devouring  element — 
fanned  by  a  violent  southwest  wind,  and  unpro 
vided  against  by  any  force  of  engines — shooting 
aloft  its  hot  clouds  of  smoke  lurid  with  sparks, 
and  hurling  its  fiery  flakes  in  every  direction 
among  wooden  buildings — came  roaring  and 
leaping  along  both  sides  up  Broadway — mounted 
the  spires  of  Trinity  Church,  as  if  to  signalise 
its  triumph  to  the  whole  adjoining  country — 
and  in  one  insufferable  wave  of  blaze,  rolled  on 
towards  St.  Paul's — till  beyond,  near  Barclay 
Street,  arrested  by  the  College  Green  and  a 
change  of  wind,  it  stopped  at  last,  having  laid 
four  hundred  and  ninety-three  houses,  nearly  one- 
third  of  the  city,  in  ashes.  The  dark  confusion 
of  that  morning  and  day  as  the  British  soldiers 


NATHAN     HALE.  109 

fought  the  flames — the  peal  of  the  alarm  bells — 
the  loud  shouting  of  voices  in  wonder  and  terror, 
mingled  with  the  louder  roar  of  timbers,  walls, 
and  roofs,  as  they  cracked,  rocked,  and  tumbled 
to  the  ground — had  hardly  yet  subsided — the 
broad  sky  itself  not  long  lost  its  startling  sem 
blance  of  conflagration — when  the  guard  with 
Hale,  landing  probably  at  one  of  the  slips  of 
the  city,  started  to  seek  the  prisoner's  judge,  the 
British  Commander  in  chief. 

General  Howe,  at  this  time,  had  his  quarters 
near  Turtle  Bay,  on  the  East  River,  at  Mount 
Pleasant — the  then  family  seat  of  James  Beek-^ 
man  Esquire,  a  sterling  Whig,  who,  on  the  near 
approach  of  the  British  army,  had  retreated  with 
his  family  for  security  to  Esopus.  The  old  man 
sion  which  he  occupied,  and  which  was  subse 
quently  occupied  by  General  Clinton  and  British 
officers  of  rank — and  among  the  rest  by  Andre, 
on  the  very  night  before  he  went  up  the  Hudson 
on  his  ill-fated  expedition — stood  three  and  a 
quarter  miles  from  the  present  City  Park  of 
10 


110  NATHAN     HALE. 

New  York,  and  at  the  corner  of  the  present 
fifty-first  street  and  first  avenue — a  spot  just  dis 
tant  enough  from  the  Provost  Jail,  and  old  Sugar 
House,  to  save  the  knightly  cars  of  the  British 
Commander  in  chief  from  the  waitings  of  Amer 
ican  prisoners,  and  the  profane  echoes  of  his 
own  cavalry  in  the  churches,  and  yet  in  conven 
ient  location  to  hear  the  reports  of  his  officers, 
as  one  after  another  some  captive  of  note,  or 
citizen  of  questionable  loyalty,  was  brought  up 
from  the  city  for  examination.  The  building  is 
still  standing,  with  the  original  decorations,  blue 
and  gold,  of  the  room  occupied  by  General  Clin 
ton  yet  unchanged — and  near  it  stood  a  green 
house — an  airy  apartment,  that  at  the  time 
of  which  we  speak,  had  a  shingle  roof,  was 
empty  of  plants,  and  is  reported  and  believed 
by  many  descendants  of  Mr.  Beekman  to  have 
been  the  spot  where  Hale  received  his  sentence. 
Be  this  as  it  may,  there  can  be  no  question  but 
that  General  Howe  had  his  quarters  at  Mount 
Pleasant  at  the  time  of  Hale's  condemnation — 


NATHAN     HALE.  Ill 

and  thither,  beyond  all  reasonable  doubt,  to  the 
mansion  house,  or  the  green-house  adjacent,  the 
young  captive  was  taken.* 

Tall,   graceful,    dignified,    as    was    General 
Howe — in  personal  appearance  much  resembling 

*  Among  other  proofs  of  the  facts  stated  in  the  text  are  the 
following. 

1 .  Jerome   B.    Holgate,   in   his   American    Genealogy,   says : 
44  Three  miles  from  the  City  Hall  [New  York]  stands  an  old 
mansion  built  by  James  Beekman,  and  occupied  by  British  offi 
cers  during  the  war.     One  room  near  the  head  of  the  stairs 
was  occupied  by  Andre,  the  night  before  he  went  up  the  River, 
on  his  ill-fated  expedition  ;  and  (strange  Providence  !)  but  a  few 
yards  distant  still  stands  the  green-house  where   Captain  Nathan 
Hale  of  the  American  army  received  his  trial  and  condemnation." 

2.  Two  letters  from  Hon.  James  W.  Beekman  of  New  York, 
grandson  of  James  Beekman  mentioned  in  the  text,  and  present 
owner  of  the  premises  in  question.     Mr.  Beekman  has  carefully 
scrutinized  all  the  circumstances  in  the  case,  and  as  to  the  Head 
Quarters  of  Gen.  Howe,  at  the  time  under  consideration,  says  to 
the  writer,   "  I  consider,  with  you,  the  fact  clearly  established 
that  they  were  on  the  21st  Sept.  1776,  at  my  Grandfather's — 
corner  of  fifty-first  street  and  first  avenue,  at  present."     The  gar 
dener  of  James  Beekman  made  a  cotfinporaneons  record  of  the 
fact. 


112  NATHAN     HALE. 

Washington,  yet  with  features  more  pointed, 
and  in  temper  sharp  and  harsh  towards  the 
unfortunate  patriots  who  fell  in  his  power — it 
was  not,  we  may  believe,  without  something  of 
awe,  and  a  dark  anticipation  of  his  fate,  that 
Hale  found  himself  ushered  into  the  sombre 
presence  of  his  judge. 

The  charge  was  soon  made — the  proof  pro 
duced.  What  said  the  youthful  prisoner  then  ? 
Did  he  explain,  prevaricate,  deny — throw  himself 
on  the  laws  of  war,  and  demand  trial  by  a  Court 
Martial — that  right  accorded  to  every  military 
offender  save  a  mutineer?  Did  he  continue 
still  to  wear  the  semblance  of  the  Schoolmaster, 
and  inventing  time,  place,  and  name,  resolutely 
offer  to  prove  the  genuineness  of  his  profession  ? 
Or  playing  the  loyalist  and  tory,  did  he  suppli 
cate  to  '  swear  in'  his  hatred  of  the  rebels,  and 
his  fealty  to  King  George  ?  Or,  taking  advan- 
age  of  Howe's  thirst  for  raising  provincial  troops, 
and  of  the  King's  bounty,  in  confiscated  lands, 
houses,  money,  and  in  honors,  to  those  of  his 


NATHAN     HALE.  113 

countrymen  who  would  recruit  the  royal  army — 
did  lie  profess  his  readiness  to  co-operate  there 
after,  heartily,  "in  suppressing  the  unnatural 
rebellion  in  North  America,"  and  at  once  for 
this  purpose  to  join  the  company  of  some  "  Royal 
American  Regiment,"  or  "Prince  of  Wales' 
American  Volunteers,"  or  "King's  American 
Dragoons"* — a  course  which,  doubtless,  in  the 
peculiar  exigency  of  the  British  general  at  that 
time,  would  have  saved  the  life  of  the  spy,  since 
we  find  it  afterwards  protecting  even  such  mal 
efactors  as  robbers  and  murderers?!  Or,  his 
young  heart  crushed  and  riven  by  the  horror  of 
his  situation — the  memories  of  home,  and  love 

*  The  actual  names  of  American  regiments  raised  during  the 
war  for  the  British  service. 

f  "  The  provincial  corps,"  or  soldiers  raised  in  America,  were 
frequently  abandoned  men,  fugitives  from  justice,  who  enlisted 
to  escape  punishment.  Even  such  recruits  were  hard  to  be 
obtained  at  a  high  bounty  ;  and  if  they  committed  a  crime,  the 
officers  were  loth  to  lose  them,  or  give  them  up  to  punish 
ment — to  replace  them  was  so  difficult."  Ondfrdonk's  Revol. 
Incidents  of  Queen's  County,  jj.  182. 

10* 


114  NATHAN    HALE. 

of  life,  pleading  too  keenly  and  powerfully  in 
his  bosom — did  he  appeal  to  the  benignity,  the 
compassion,  to  the  mercy  of  his  judge? 

Nothing — nothing  of  all  this — though  his  sit 
uation — so  varied  are  the  chances  of  life,  such 
and  so  many  the  happy  accidents  that  snatch  us 
from  the  grave — was  not  yet  all  bereft  of  hope. 
Open  and  sincere  as  he  was  by  nature — incapa 
ble,  save  for  the  high  patriotic  end  he  then  pur 
sued,  of  delusion,  and  already  overweary  proba 
bly  of  the  burden  of  deceit — his  conscience  too, 
before  an  august  tribunal,  and  under  staggering 
circumstances,  impelling  him,  too  sensitively 
perhaps,  to  resume  his  wonted  truthful  charac 
ter — Hale  frankly,  and  at  once,  acknowledged 
his  mission — confessed  himself  an  American 
officer  and  a  spy — proudly  yet  respectfully  sta 
ted  his  success — bemoaned  that  his  hope  of  serv 
ing  his  country  was  now  suddenly  cut  off — and 
stood  calm  and  fearless  before  his  judge — await 
ing  his  decision. 

That  decision  was  soon  made.     A  piece  of 


NATHAN     HALE.  115 

paper— a  pen— ink — a  few  lines— and  under  the 
initials  of  "  George  Rex,"  and  by  the  hand  and 
seal  at  arms  of  William  Howe  Commander  in 
chief,  William  Cunningham,  Provost  Marshal 
of  the  Royal  Army,  was  directed  to  receive  into 
his  custody  the  body  of  Nathan  Hale,  a  cap 
tain  in  the  rebel  army,  that  day  convicted  as  a 
spy — and  further,  to  see  him  hung  by  the  neck 
until  dead,  "to-morrow-morning  at  daybreak."* 


*  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  a  formal  Avarrant,  in  purport 
the  same  with  that  described  in  the  text,  was  given  by  Howe. 
Such  appertained  to  his  function  as  Commander.  Such  apper 
tained  to  the  function  of  Cunningham  as  Provost  Marshal.  Such 
were  entered  by  Cunningham  in  his  Kecords,  which  he  habitually 
kept  for  his  own  justification,  and  official  report.  That  in  the 
text  is  given,  almost  verbatim,  by  Buckingham,  the  author  of 
Revolutionary  Tales  in  the  New  York  Sunday  Times — in  his 
Sketch  of  Hale — whether  from  copy  of  the  actual  warrant,  or 
from  the  imagination  of  what  it  must  have  been,  we  know  not. 
Of  its  substantial  correctness,  however,  we  entertain  no  doubt. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

A  reflection.  Hale  unuppallcd.  His  confinement  after  sentence. 
His  jailor  and  executioner,  William  Cunningham,  Provost 
Marshal  of  the  British  Army.  Cruel  treatment  of  Hale. 
His  gloomy  situation.  His  noble  endurance.  Writes  letters 
to  his  friends,  and  prepares  himself,  sublimely,  for  the  catas 
trophe.  Is  taken  out  to  die.  The  brutal  Provost  Marshal 
tauntingly  demands  from  him  a  dying  speech.  That  speech! 
The  fatal  swing. 

u  To-morrow-morning  at  daybreak!'''  How 
quick  to  die!  The  sands  of  life  left  how  few! 
The  interval  for  thought,  recollection,  for  last 
memorializing  wish,  if  pity  were  not  turned  to 
stone,  how  cruelly  brief!  And  yet  this  sudden 
ness  of  sentence — these  startling  inches  only  of 
life's  space  ere  the  soul's  last  plunge — forced  not 
one  word  of  remonstrance — not  a  complaining 


NATHAN     HALE 


117 


not  a  quiver,  even  involuntary,  of  fear— 
from  the  condemned  patriot — and  under  a  strong 
guard,  he  was  borne  from  the  presence  of  his 
judge. 

Whither  ?  To  some  barrack,  or  tent,  or  build 
ing  adjacent  to  the  quarters  of  Howe— or  to  the 
Provost?  It  is  impossible  to  tell  with  any  cer 
tainty — so  meagre  is  History  on  this  point,  and 
the  few  facts  she  offers  are  so  vague  and  con 
flicting.*  If  confined  near  the  spot  of  his  con- 

*  Yet  these  facts  incline— a  few  of  them  strongly— to  the 
Provost  as  the  prison  of  Hale.  This  building  was  then  in  use 
as  a  jail.  It  was  a  receptacle  for  offenders  who  were  most  noto 
rious.  It  was  the  safest  of  all  places  in  which  to  keep  a  prisoner. 
It  was  adjacent  to  the  spot  where  public  executions  at  this  period 
usually  took  place.  Tradition,  quite  uniformly,  points  to  it 
as  the  prison  of  Hale.  Two  old  gentlemen  of  Lyme,  Connecti 
cut,  who  died  several  years  ago,  and  who  were  men  of  integrity, 
stated,  we  are  assured,  that  they  saw  Hale  there  the  night 
before  his  execution.  A  Hessian  straggler,  passing  through 
Coventry  just  after  the  event,  told  a  Mr.  Brigham  with  whom 
he  staid  over  night,  that  he  saw  Hale  hung  in  New  York  City, 
near  Chambers  [then  Barrack]  street.  Upon  the  whole  we  are 
strongly  inclined  to  think  that  the  Provost  was  his  prison — and  a 


118  NATHAN     HALE. 

demnation,  an  armed  British  guard,  of  course, 
paced  around  him,  and  clattered  their  muskets, 
and  rung  their  dread  watchwords  in  upon  his 
bondage.  But  if  taken  down  to  the  Provost,  as 
was  most  probably  the  case,  the  ear  of  the  cap 
tive  was  filled  and  agonized  with  other  and  more 
afflictive  sounds — with  the  echo  of  bolts  and 
bars  through  black  prison  vaults — with  the  cease 
less  clank  of  chains — with  the  wail  of  captive 
countrymen  of  his  own — and  with  the  felon's 
muttered  curse. 

It  was  a  gloomy,  terrific  abode  indeed — that 
jail — the  Provost !  Destined  for  the  more  noto 
rious  rebels,  civil,  naval,  and  military— it  stood 
upon  the  eastern  boundary  of  the  Park,  about 

spot  adjoining,  the  place  of  his  execution— though  the  facility 
with  which  executions  were  effected  at  this  period — upon  a 
tree,  or  at  a  lamp  post — at  the  first  convenient  point — in  or  out 
of  the  presence  of  the  Army — and  the  distance  of  three  miles 
which  intervened  between  Kale's  place  of  trial  and  the  Provost — 
and  the  fact  that  Cunningham  often  moved  about  with  the  Brit 
ish  army,  from  place  to  place — cause  our  judgment  in  the  mat 
ter  somewhat  to  waver. 


NATHAN     HALE.  119 

midway,  at  a  time  when  this  enclosure  had 
within  it  neither  City  Hall  or  Almshouse.  The 
building  stands  there  now — and  is  the  present 
Hall  of  Records.  Two  sentinels  guarded,  day 
and  night,  its  entrance  door.  Two  more  were 
posted  at  its  first  and  second  barricades,  which 
were  grated,  barred,  and  chained.  Others  watch 
ed  at  its  rear  door,  or  upon  platforms  on  flights  of 
steps  which  led  to  rooms  and  cells  in  the  second 
and  third  stories.  It  was  surrounded  by  a  yard — 
back  of  which — on  the  present  site  of  the  old 
Almshouse — was  a  range  of  barracks — and 
beyond  these,  on  the  upper  side  of  Chambers 
street  between  Broadway  and  Centre,  an  old 
Burying-yard,  which  long  served  both  as  a  place 
of  execution,  and  as  a  last  resting-place  for  the 
dead  of  the  neighboring  prison.  At  the  time  of 
which  we  speak,  it  was  under  the  charge  of  a 

Commissary  to  whom  we  have  already  alluded 

William  Cunningham — a  man  than  whom  none 
more  infamous  for  cruelty  ever  disgraced  the 
annals  of  any  prison  upon  earth.  Associated 


120  NATHAN     HALE. 

as  he  darkly  was  with  the  patriot  whose  fate 
we  commemorate,  let  us  pause  here  just  a  mo 
ment  for  his  portrait. 

A  large,  lusty  Irishman — of  rough,  forbid 
ding  aspect — having  served  early  in  life  in 
the  British  Dragoons,  he  came  to  New  York 
before  the  Revolution,  and  when  the  war  broke 
out,  becoming  at  once  a  tory  and  a  renegade, 
joined  Sir  William  Howe,  and  was  by  him 
appointed  Provost  Marshal  of  the  British  army. 
Avaricious — cruelly  so — he  at  times  dosed  his 
prisoners  with  arsenic  in  their  flour,  "for  the 
sake  of  cheating  his  king  and  country  by  contin 
uing  fora  time  to  draw  their  nominal  rations." 
Wonted, to  sit  in  his  quarters  at  the  Provost, 
opposite  the  guard-room  on  the  right  hand  of 


*  lie  was  only  restrained  from  putting  them  to  death  in  a 
more  violent  way,  it  is  said,  "  five  or  six  of  them  of  a  night, 
back  of  the  prison  yard,  by  the  distress  of  certain  women  in  the 
neighborhood,  who,  pained  by  the  cries  for  mercy  which  they 
heard,  went  to  the  commander  in  chief,  and  made  the  case  known, 
with  entreaties  to  spare  the  lives  of  the  sufferers  in  future." 
Watson's  Olden  Times  in  the  City  of  New  York. 


NATHAN     HALE.  121 

the  main  door,  and  drink  punch  till  his  brain 
was  011  fire — he  would  then  stagger  out  into  the 
corridors — followed  often  by  his  negro  Richmond, 
the  common  hangman,  with  coils  of  rope  about  his 
neck — and  pouring  forth  volleys  of  tempestuous 
abuse  on  the  wretched  sufferers  who  happened  to 
be  outside  their  cells,  drive  the  "  dogs,"  as  he 
called  them,  back  to  their  "  kennels,"  the  "  rebel 
spawn,"  as  he  varied  it,  "in  to  their  holes  "—or 
vent  his  spite,  as  he  passed  up  and  down  the 
hall,  by  kicking  over  vessels  of  soup  which  the 
charitable  sometimes  placed  there  for  poor  and 
friendless  captives — or  clanking  his  keys,  reel  to 
the  door  of  the  prison,  and  strain  his  drunken 
gaze  for  fresh  victims.  Such  another  victim — 
on  the  night  of  the  twenty-first  of  September, 
1776 — either  at  the  Provost,  or  at  the  head  quar 
ters  of  General  Howe — he  found  in  Captain 
Nathan  Hale — and  such  was  the  ruffian  jailor 
and  executioner  whom  Hale  found  in  William 
Cunningham ! 

On  receiving  his  prisoner,  Cunningham,  accor 
ding  to  his  custom,  questioned  him  minutely  as 
11 


122  NATHAN     HALE. 

to  his  name,  rank,  size,  and  age,*  read  the  war 
rant  for  his  death,  and  ordered  him  to  be  rigidly 
confined.  Hale  calmly  requested  that  his  hands 
might  be  unpinioned,  and  that  he  might  be  fur 
nished  with  writing  materials  and  a  light.  He 
wanted,  he  said,  to  address  a  few  lines  to  his 
parents  and  friends.  The  request  was  at  first 
brutally  refused.  He  asked  for  a  Bible,  that  he, 
a  dying  man,  might  receive  the  last  holy  conso 
lations  of  the  religion  which  he  professed.  This 
request  too  was  met  at  first  with  coarse  denial — 
with  curses  too,  it  is  highly  probable,  on  the 
stupidity  of  last  hour  repentances,  and  impious 
taunts  of  tortures  beyond  the  grave  for  all  trait 
ors  to  their  king.f  But  there  was  one  heart 


*  "  When  a  prisoner,  escorted  by  soldiers,  was  led  into  the 
hall,  the  whole  guard  was  paraded,  and  he  was  delivered  over, 
with  all  formality,  to  Capt.  Cunningham  or  his  deputy,  and 
questioned  as  to  his  name,  rank,  size,  age,  £c.,  all  of  which  were 
entered  in  a  record-book."  Dunlap's  Hist.  N.  York,  Vol.  II., 
p.  137. 

t  Cunningham's  brutal  demeanor  is  strikingly  illustrated  in 
the  case  of  another  son  of  Connecticut,  the  Rev.  Moses  Mather 


NATHAN     HALE.  123 

near,  which  for  a  moment  throbbed  with  pity 
for  the  prisoner — so  young,  so  graceful,  so  treat 
ed,  yet  so  mild,  so  firm,  so  soon  to  die,  and — 
alone!  Moved  in  spite  of  himself,  the  young 

D.  D.,  of  Darien,  Conn.  This  exemplary  and  distinguished 
divine,  July  twenty-second,  1781,  was  taken  captive  with  about 
forty  of  his  congregation,  while  worshipping  on  the  Sabbath,  by 
a  party  of  British  troops  consisting  chiefly  of  tory  refugees, 
which  came  over  from  Long  Island,  and  suddenly  surrounded 
the  Church.  The  following  extract  from  Barber's  Historical 
Collections  of  Connecticut,  shows  his  subsequent  treatment. 

"  Dr.  Mather  having  been  taken  into  New  York,  was  confined 
in  the  Provost  Prison.  Here  his  food  was  stinted,  and  wretched 
to  a  degree  not  easily  imaginable.  His  lodging  corresponded 
with  his  food.  His  company,  to  a  considerable  extent,  was 
made  up  of  mere  rabble ;  and  their  conversation,  from  which  he 
could  not  retreat,  was  composed  of  profaneness  and  ribaldry. 
Here  also  he  was  insulted  daily  by  the  Provost  Marshal,  whose 
name  was  Cunningham — a  wretch  remembered  in  this  country 
only  with  detestation.  This  wretch,  with  other  kinds  of  abuse, 
took  a  particular  satisfaction  in  announcing  from  time  to  time 
to  Dr.  Mather,  that  on  that  day,  the  morrow,  or  some  other  time 
at  a  little  distance,  he  was  to  be  executed. 

"  But  Dr.  Mather  was  not  without  his  friends — friends,  how 
ever,  who  knew  nothing  of  him,  except  his  character.  A  lady 
of  distinction,  [the  mother  of  Washington  Irving,  according  to 


124  NATHAN     HALE. 

Lieutenant  of  Halc's  guard  interfered  in  his 
behalf,  it  is  said,  earnestly — and  was  so  far  suc 
cessful  as  to  procure  for  him  the  privilege  of 
writing.  With  pen,  ink  and  paper  therefore,  a 
light,  and  hands  unraanacled,  he  was  thrust, 
late  it  would  seem  in  the  night,  into  some 
separate  abode — some  lonely  tent — or  gloomy 
barrack — or  desolate  chamber — or  grated  cell — 
and  for  a  while,  was  left  to  himself. 

There,  without  a  friend — without  the  solace  of 
even  one  kind  word — without  the  glimmer  even 
of  a  hope  of  escape — on  the  verge  of  an  ignomin 
ious  death — for  the  last  time,  to  transcribe  for 
those  he  loved  the  deep  emotions  of  his  heart ! 
There  in  the  dread  twilight  of  eternity — not  as 
it  creeps  mantling  with  silver  over  the  sick 
man's  tended  couch — but  as  it  wears  the  scaf- 


informution  obtained  in  Darien,]  having  learned  his  circumstan 
ces,  and  having  obtained  the  necessary  permission,  sent  to  him 
clothes  and  food,  and  comforts,  with  a  very  liberal  hand.  He 
died  Sept.  21st,  1806,  venerated  by  all  who  knew  him,  in  the 
88th  year  of  his  age.  He  was  educated  at  Yale  College,  of 
which  he  was  a  Fellow  thirteen  years." 


NATHAN     HALE.  125 

fold's  ghastly  hue — to  commune  with  his  soul, 
and  with  his  God ! — What  a  night  to  Hale ! 

The  hours  flew  as  seconds.  Weeks  and 
months  to  one  death-doomed,  endure  but  as 
single  sands  ebbing  in  Time's  smallest  glass. 
Light  runs  into  shade,  and  shade  into  light,  with 
scarce  a  gradation  marked  by  that  eye  on  which 
all  light  and  shade  are  soon  to  close  forever. 
But  quick  as  must  have  passed  to  Hale  his 
prison  hours,  there  was  one  to  whom  these  hours 
doubtless  seemed  laggard — he  to  whose  hands 
the  captive  was  consigned — and  the  deeper  shad 
ows  of  the  night  had  scarce  faded  into  misty 
gray,  the  rose  of  an  autumn  sun,  low  and  faint, 
but  just  begun  to  "blush  in  the  east,  when  the 
executioner  sought  his  victim.  It  was  morn 
ing — daybreak — morning  too  of  the  i  hallowed 
day ' — but  War  knows  no  Sabbaths — the  fatal 
hour  had  come ! 

Cunningham  found  Hale   ready.      Doubtful 
it  is  if  on  that  straw,  or  rug,  or  coarse  blanket, 
11* 


126  NATHAN     HALE. 

or  "oaken  plank,"  which  formed  his  bed,*  he 
had  slept  at  all — the  thoughts  of  home  and 
death  rushing,  as  they  must  have  done,  impetu 
ously  on  his  nerves.  He  handed  the  letters  he 
had  written  to  the  Provost  Marshal  for  ultimate 
delivery — one  certainly  to  his  mother — another, 
it  is  said,  to  his  sisters — a  third  probably  to  the 
lady  to  whom  he  was  betrothed — or  perhaps  his 
messages  to  all  may  have  occupied  a  single  letter, 
or  a  single  sheet.  Be  this  as  it  may,  what  he 
had  written  was  at  once  insolently  scrutinised 
by  Cunningham,  who,  as  he  read,  grew  furious 
at  the  noble  spirit  which  breathed  in  every 
line  of  the  composition — and  for  the  reason — 
afterwards  given  by  himself — '•'that  the  rebels 
should  never  know  they  had  a  man  who  could 
die  with  such  firmness"  he  tore  the  paper  into 

*  "An  oaken  plank,  it  was  our  bed, 

And  very  scanty  we  were  fed." 

AVo//i  Peter  St.  John's  account — one  of  the  Provost  prisoners, 
and  captured  at  Darien,  Conn  ,  with  the  Rev.  Moses  Mather  D.  D., 
and  others. 


NATHAN     HALE.  127 

shreds,  and  ordered  his  victim  to  begin  his  death 
march. 

That  march — its  accompaniments — the  place 
of  the  scaffold — its  preparations — the  scene 
around  it — these  are  points  upon  which  history 
does  not  throw  much  light,  yet  enough  materi 
ally  to  aid  conjecture.  The  general  practice  in 
executions,  at  this  period,  and  particularly  Cun 
ningham's,  we  have  ascertained  from  various 
sources.*  That  they  were  conducted  chiefly  in 

*In  1782,  two  British  soldiers,  named  Jbjc/iand  Porter,  were 
hung  at  the  "Wallabout,  on  a  chestnut  tree,  for  robbing  and  mur 
dering  a  farmer  of  Flushing  named  James  Hedges.  Cunning 
ham  presided  over  the  execution,  which  took  place  in  the  pres 
ence  of  a  large  detachment  of  the  British  Army.  The  late  ven 
erable  General  Jeremiah  Johnson  of  Brooklyn,  L.  I.,  witnessed  itr 
and  in  a  letter  to  the  writer  describes  it  as  below.  The  extract 
we  give  materially  aids  our  conception  both  of  the  manner  in 
which  an  execution  was  conducted  in  the  times  of  which  we 
speak,  and  of  the  Provost  Marshal,  with  his  black  ham/man. 

"  The  execution,"  writes  General  Johnson,  "  was  conducted 
as  follows.  At  10  A.  M.,  about  1000  men  were  marched  to  the 
place  of  execution,  and  formed  a  hollow  square,  Avhich  enclosed 
a  large  chestnut  tree  on  the  land  (then)  of  Martin  Schenck. 
A  short  time  after  the  square  was  formed,  Cunningham,  followed 


128  NATHAN     HALE. 

an  old  graveyard  near  the  Provost,  in  Chambers 
[then  Barrack]  Street,  is  a  fact  well  made  out. 

by  his  mulatto  neyro  hangman,  who  carried  a  ladder  and  cords, 
entered  the  square.  The  negro  placed  the  ladder  against  an 
horizontal  limb  of  the  tree,  which  was  about  15  feet  from  the 
ground.  He  then  ascended  the  ladder,  and  adjusted  one  halter, 
lie  then  moved  the  ladder  about  four  feet,  and  adjusted  the  sec 
ond  halter.  The  nooses  dropped  about  five  feet.  A  short  time 
after  the  halters  were  adjusted,  the  criminals  were  escorted  into 
the  square.  Their  arms  were  pinioned,  and  they  were  dressed 
in  white  jackets,  and  white  overhauls,  and  they  wore  white  caps. 
Tench  ascended  the  ladder  first,  and  the  hangman  stepped  up 
close  behind  him,  and  fixed  the  halter  around  the  culprit's  neck, 
drew  the  cap  over  his  face,  descended,  and  immediately  turned 
the  man  off  the  ladder,  when  he  hung  about  five  feet  above 
ground.  The  ladder  Avas  then  placed  at  the  second  halter. 
Porter  ascended  the  steps  firmly,  followed  by  the  negro,  who 
fixed  the  halter,  drew  down  the  cap,  descended,  and  immedi 
ately  turned  Porter  off  towards  Tench.  The  bodies  struck 
against  each  other,  and  dangled  some  time  before  tliev  were 
still.  The  men  struggled  little  in  dying. 

"  The  field  and  staff  officers  were  stationed  inside  the  square. 
After  the  execution,  I  saw  Cunningham  go  to  the  commanding 
officer  (said  to  be  Grey),  to  whom  I  suppose  lie  reported,  and  who 
appeared  to  treat,  him  with  contempt.  The  troops  marched  off  to 
their  camp.  The  dead  bodies  were  taken  down,  and  buried  under 
the  tree." 


NATHAN     HALE.  129 

It  is  probable,  therefore,  that  this  was  the  spot 
of  Male's  suffering — though  it  may  have  been 
elsewhere — above  the  city — and  on  some  tree 
near  the  place  of  his  trial.  As  a  spy,  his  exe 
cution  would,  of  course,  be  public — we  know 
that  it  was  so — would  be  attended  with  the  ordi 
nary  formalities — all  that  were  calculated  to 
strike  terror — and  with  many  in  addition,  for 
the  purpose  of  accumulating  disgrace — and  in 
the  case  under  consideration,  we  know,  was 
accompanied  with  every  contrivance  which  bru 
tality  could  suggest  to  wound  the  sensibilities  of 
the  victim.* 


*  Among  other  testimony  in  proof  of  the  fact  stated  in  the 
text  is  the  following.  Tunis  Bogart,  an  honest  farmer  of  Long- 
Island,  who  for  five  weeks  remained  impressed  as  a  waggoner  in 
the  British  service,  witnessed  Hale's  execution.  In  1784,  being 
asked  to  witness  another  execution  then  about  to  take  place,  he 
replied :  "  No — I  have  seen  one  man  hung,  a  spy,  [alluding  to 
Hale,J  and  that's  enough  for  me.  I  have  never  been  able  to 
efface  the  scene  of  horror  from  my  mind — it  rises  up  to  my  imag 
ination  always.  That  old  'Devil  Catcher'  Cunningham  was 
so  brutal,  and  hung  him  up  as  a  butcher  would  a  calf!  The 


130  NATHAN     HALE. 

His  arms  then,  probably,  pinioned  close  behind 
him — over  his  body  a  coarse  white  gown  or 
jacket  trimmed  with  black,  the  winding  sheet  of 
the  scaffold — on  his  head  a  cap  of  white,  trimmed 
too  with  black — near  him  a  box  of  rough  pine 
boards,  his  coffin,  borne  in  a  cart,  or  upon  the 
shoulders  of  attendants — before  him  a  guard 
leading  the  way — behind  him  another  guard 
with  loaded  muskets  and  fixed  bayonets — in  the 
rear  of  these  Cunningham  himself,  with  other 
officers ,  as  formal  witnesses  of  the  event — and 
near,  mulatto  Richmond,  the  common  hangman 
of  the  Provost,  bearing  a  ladder,  and  with  a 
coil  of  rope  about  his  neck — such  were  the  cir 
cumstances,  it  may  fairly  be  presumed,  under 
which  Hale  moved  to  the  place  of  his  execution — 
there  where  some  tree  sent  out  from  its  ill-omened 
trunk  a  rigid  horizontal  limb,  or  where  from 
among  the  bones  of  those  already  dead,  two 


women  sobbed  aloud,  and  Cunningham  swore  at  them  for  it, 
and  told  them  they  would  likely  enough  themselves  come  to  the 
*amc  fate." 


NATHAN    HALE.  131 

straight  poles,  supporting  a  cross  beam  in  their 
crotches,  shot  into  the  air — and  where,  just 
beneath,  a  heap  of  earth,  thrown  freshly  out, 
marked  a  new-made  grave. 

Early  morning  as  it  was,  the  sun  hardly  risen, 
yet  quite  a  crowd  was  collected  around  the  spot — 
many  whom  the  fire  in  the  city  had  kept  out  of 
their  beds  all  night — men  and  women — a  few 
American  waggoners,  who,  impressed  from  Long 
Island  into  the  British  forage  service,  happened 
to  be  in  town — some  soldiers  and  officers  of  the 
royal  army,  and  among  these  last  that  officer  of 
the  British  Commissariat  Department,  whose 
subsequent  narrative  of  the  circumstances  to 
General  Hull  forms  one  of  our  chief  sources  of 
information.  But  in  all  that  crowd  there  was 
not  one  face  familiar  to  Hale — not  one  voice  to 
whisper  a  word  of  consolation  to  his  dying  agony. 
Yet  though  without  a  friend  whom  he  knew — 
though  denied  that  privilege  granted  usually  to 
the  meanest  criminal,  the  attendance  of  a  chap 
lain — though  degraded  by  every  external  mark 


132  NATHAN     HALE. 

of  ignominy — yet  did  his  spirit  not  give  way. 
His  gait,  as  he  approached  the  gallows,  in  spite 
of  his  pinioned  arms,  was  upright  and  steady. 
No  offending  soldier  to  whom  the  choicer  penalty 
has  been  assigned  to  receive  the  shot  of  his  com 
rades,  ever,  in  the  midst  of  sympathy,  and  with 
the  consciousness  that  he  was  allowed  at  least  a 
soldier's  death,  marched  more  firmly  to  kneel 
upon  his  coffin  than  did  Hale  to  meet  the  felon's 
doom.  Through  all  the  horror  of  his  situation 
he  maintained  a  deportment  so  dignified,  a  reso 
lution  so  calm,  a  spirit  so  exalted  by  Christian 
readiness  to  meet  his  fate,  and  by  the  conscious 
ness  of  duty  done,  and  done  in  the  holy  cause  of 
his  country,  that  his  face,  we  cannot  but  think, 
must  have  worn  almost  the  aspect  of  a  seraph's — 
lifted  as  it  was  at  frequent  intervals  to  heaven,  and 
so  radiant  with  hope,  heroism,  and  resignation. 
Thus  looking,  he  stood  at  last — the  few  simple 
preparations  being  ended — elevated  on  one  of 
the  rounds  of  the  gallows  ladder — ready  for  the 
fatal  fall.  The  coarse  voice  of  Cunningham, 
whose  eye  watched  every  arrangement,  was  now 


NATHAN    HALE.  133 

heard  scoffingly  demanding  from  his  victim  his 
dying  speech  and  confession* — as  if  hoping  that 
the  chaos  of  Hale's  soul  at  that  awful  moment, 
would  lead  him  to  utter  some  remark,  strange 
or  ridiculous,  which  might  serve  to  glut  the 
curiosity  of  the  crowd,  or  be  remembered  as  a 
kind  of  self-made  epitaph  by  '  a  rebel  captain.' 

Never  was  torturer  more  cheated  of  his  pur 
pose — never  a  victim  endowed  with  utterance 
more  sublime !  One  glance,  it  is  said,  at  Cun 
ningham — one  slight  momentary  contraction  of 
his  features  into  contempt — and  he  turned  his 
look,  filled  again  with  holy  energy  and  sweet 
ness,  upon  the  spectators — now  impressed,  most 


*  That  such  a  demand  was  made  by  Cunningham,  rests 
chiefly  on  the  statement  of  the  late  H.  A.  Buckingham  Esq., 
of  New  York.  He  assured  us  that  he  received  it  from  unques 
tionable  authority,  having  consulted,  as  we  know  he  did,  very 
many  aged  persons  in  New  York  who  were  conversant  with  it, 
and  with  some  other  particulars  regarding  the  execution  of 
Hale.  We  see  no  reason  to  doubt  the  statement,  but  on  the 
other  hand,  we  perceive  everything  in  the  character  and  con 
duct  of  Cunningham  to  corroborate  it  amply. 

12 


134  NATHAN     HALE. 

of  them,  with  solemn  awe — and  some  of  them, 
the  females,  not  forbearing  to  sob  aloud.  With 
a  voice  full,  distinct,  slow — which  came  mourn 
fully  thrilling  from  the  very  depths  of  his 
being — in  words  which  patriotism  will  forever 
enshrine,  and  every  monument  to  Halo's  mem 
ory  sink  deepest  into  its  stone,  and  every  temple 
of  liberty  blazon  highest  on  its  entablature — at 
the  very  moment  when  the  tightening  knotted 
cord  was  to  crush  the  life  from  his  young  body 
forever — he  ejaculated — as  the  last  immortal 
testament  of  his  heroic  soul  to  the  world  he  was 

leaving — 

» 

"3  onto  regret  tl)at  3  l)aue  but  one  life  to  lose 
for  mji  count™ ! " 

Maddened  to  hear  a  sentiment  so  sublime  burst 
from  the  lips  of  the  sufferer,  and  to  witness 
visible  signs  of  sympathy  among  the  crowd, 
Cunningham  instantly  shouted  for  the  catastro 
phe  to  close. — "Swing  the  rebel  off!" — we  con- 


NATHAN     HALE.  135 

ceive  we  hear  him  vociferating  even  now  — 
u  swing  him  off!"  The  ladder  disappeared  — 
the  cord  strained  from  the  creaking  beam  or 
bough  —  and  with  a  sudden  jerk,  the  body  of 
Hale  dangled  convulsively  in  the  air.  A  few 
minutes  fluttering  to  and  fro  —  a  few  heavings 
of  its  noble  chest  —  its  manly  limbs  at  moments 
sharply  bent  by  the  pang  —  it  at  last  hung 
straight  and  motionless  from  its  support. 
All  was  still  as  the  chambers  of  death  — 


of 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

Effect  of  Halc's  death— upon  Gen.  Washington— upon  the 
American  army— upon  his  relatives,  and  friends  elsewhere— 
upon  his  camp  attendant,  Asher  Wright.  Deep  and  general 
mourning.  The  Hale  Monument  Association.  The  Monu 
ment.  Extracts  from  poetry  in  memory  of  Hale.  An  epi 
taph  by  a  friend.  Comparison  between  Hale  and  Andre. 
Conclusion. 

THE  death  of  Hale  was  deemed  of  sufficient 
importance,  in  the  British  army,  to  demand  its 
formal  notification  to  the  American  Commander 
in  chief.  From  a  motive  probably  of  military 
policy—that  the  capture  and  summary  execu 
tion,  at  the  hands  of  British  vigilance,  of  an 
American  spy,  might  operate  as  an  example  and 
a  warning  upon  the  American  army— Colonel 
Montaznar  of  the  royal  forces  was  deputed,  un- 


NATHAN     HALE.  137 

der  a  flag  of  truce,  to  announce  the  event  to 
General  Washington.  He  fulfilled  his  mission. 
The  melancholy  tidings  were  received — with 
what  sorrow — with  what  sympathy,  on  the  part 
of  the  Commander  in  chief,  we  are  left,  in  great 
degree  to  conjecture.  Washington's  grief,  how 
ever,  must  have  been  profound — for  he  was  a 
man  himself  instinct  with  sensibility,  and  Hale, 
we  learn  from  various  sources,  was  one  of  his 
favorites.  In  the  camp  at  Cambridge,  he  had 
met  him  in  the  tents  of  those  generals  in  the 
army  with  whom  Hale  was  familiar,  and  at 
various  places  upon  the  field  of  encampment, 
and  at  his  own  Head  Quarters.  He  had  noticed 
particularly  his  skill  in  discipline,  and  the  ex 
cellent  appearance  of  his  company  on  parade — 
and  was  gratified  with  the  numerous  evidences 
which  the  young  officer  gave  of  intelligence, 
patriotism,  and  activity.  Moreover,  it  was  at 
his  own  instigation  that  Hale  had  been  employed 
upon  the  perilous  mission  in  which  he  had  lost 
his  life. 

12* 


138  NATHAN    HALE. 

A  cloud  then,  we  doubt  not,  settled  on  his 
spirits  when  the  report  first  reached  him  of 
Hale's  fate — and  upon  the  spirits  too  of  the 
American  army  generally,  wherever,  from  rank 
to  rank,  from  soldier  to  soldier,  the  sad  news 
was  circulated.  Hale's  acquaintances  in  camp 
were  very  numerous.  The  soldiers  of  his  own 
regiment  all  knew  him.  He  was  known  also  to 
many  of  other  regiments.  He  had  many  inti 
mate  friends  among  the  officers.  All  loved  him. 
The  blow  which  severed  him  from  his  military 
companions,  therefore,  was  extensively  felt,  and 
was  universally  lamented.  And  to  his  own 
family — to  his  doating  parents  particularly,*  and 
a  large  circle  of  relatives  and  friends,  to  whom 
he  was  clasped  in  affection  by  hooks  of  steel — 
what  a  bereavement!  Every  face,  within  this 
circle  particularly, 

"Bearing  its  deadly  sorrow  charactered," 

*  "  It  almost  killed  his  father  and  mother,"  said  a  lady,  who 
witnessed  their  agony,  to  the  late  Professor  Kingsley  of  Yale 
College,  our  informant. 


NATHAN     HALE.  139 

was  a  face  of  despondency.  Death  could  hardly 
have  struck  down  a  more  shining  mark — its  fatal 
dart  have  hardly  pierced  one  nobler  bosom — its 
rude,  inexorable  blast  have  scarcely  nipped  one 
fairer  bud  of  promise.*  But  upon  no  one  did 
the  news  fall  with  more  stunning  effect  than 
upon  poor  Asher  "Wright — Hale's  faithful  at 
tendant  in  camp.  It  completely  unstrung  his 
nerves.  It  impaired  his  self-control.  And  he 
wore  the  pall  of  a  somewhat  shattered  under 
standing  down  to  his  grave,  f  Back  to  the 

*  "  Those  who  knew  Capt.  Hale  in  New  London,"  says  Miss 
Caulkins  in  her  History  of  this  town,  "  have  described  him  as 
a  man  of  many  agreeable  qualities ;  frank  and  independent  in 
his  bearing ;  social,  animated,  ardent,  a  lover  of  the  society  of 
ladies,  and  a  favorite  among  them.  Many  a  fair  cheek  was  wet 
with  bitter  tears,  and  gentle  voices  uttered  deep  execrations 
on  his  barbarous  foes,  when  tidings  of  his  untimely  fate  were 
received." 

t  We  commend  the  following  extracts  from  a  letter  addressed 
to  us  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Hale  Monument  Association,  J. 
W.  Boynton  Esq.,  of  Coventry,  to  the  notice  of  the  Reader. 
They  furnish  very  interesting  particulars  about  "poor  Asher." 

"  It  is  said  that  Wright  was  never  in  a  sound  mind  after  the 


140  NATHAN     HALE. 

mansion  of  Deacon  Richard  Hale,  on  his  return 
to  Coventry,  he  bore  treasured  memorials  of  his 


sad  fate  of  Hale  was  made  known  to  him.  He  was  left  in 
charge  of  Halo's  uniform,  at  his  quarters  in  New  York.  When 
the  British  crossed  over  to  the  city,  Wright  had  much  difficulty 
in  obtaining  a  team  to  remove  the  effects  of  Hale,  and  came 
near  being  taken,  and  often  said  that  he  would  not  have  left 
without  the  effects,  although  he  might  have  been  captured  by  the 
British. 

"Wright  did  not  return  to  Coventry  for  some  years  after  he 
was  discharged  from  service,  and  it  was  ever  supposed  that  the 
fate  of  Hale,  and  the  deranged  state  of  mind  consequent  upon 
it,  were  the  causes.  Until  the  last  years  of  his  life  he  could  not 
converse  upon  the  subject  without  weeping. 

"His  grave  is  about  150  feet  directly  north  of  the  monument 
of  Hale,  and  about  30  feet  north-west  of  the  graves  of  the  Hale 
family ;  and  a  plain  marble  slab,  erected  by  his  administrator, 
bears  the  following  inscription  : 

ASHER  WRIGHT 

A      REVOLUTIONARY 

SOLDIER   AND 
ATTENDANT     OF 

Captain  Nathan  Hale 

DIED 
JUNE  20th  1844 

ACiED    90. 


NATHAN     HALE.  141 

beloved  employer — some  articles  which  Hale, 
when  he  last  parted  with  him,  had  left  in  his 
custody — and  among  these,  particularly,  Hale's 
Camp-Basket  and  Camp-Book — pictures  of 
which  the  print  opposite  accurately  presents — 
and  which,  now  that  we  are  inditing  this  para 
graph,  melancholy  remembrancers  indeed,  rest 
upon  the  table  by  our  side.  How  vividly  do 
they  call  up  the  image  of  the  youthful  martyr — 
how  bring 

"  Back  on  the  heart  the  weight  that  it  would  fling 
Aside  forever" — 

yet  a  weight  not  all  made  up  of  sadness,  but 
rainbow-tinted  at  least  with  one  inspiring  joy — 
joy  that  our  Country,  in  one  of  her  agonies  of 


"  Asher  Wright  received  a  pension  of  $>96  per  annum.  David 
Hale,  of  New  York,  was  at  all  times  rendering  assistance  to 
him,  not  only  by  a  needful  supply  of  provisions,  but  also  by 
repairs  upon  his  dwelling  house.  He  was  also  often  remem 
bered  by  Mr.  Hale's  family  in  seasonable  donations  of  clothing, 
&c.  &c." 


142  NATHAN     HALE. 

distress — when  she  stretched  out  her  shattered 
imploring  hands  for  a  service  from  which  all 
others  shrank  away — found  one  Soul  from  the 
russet  shades  of  old  Connecticut  heroic  enough, 
taking  the  cross  upon  his  own  shoulders,  for  her 
sake  to  do,  and  dare,  and  die !  * 

That  in  the  midst  of  a  grief  so  general  and 
poignant  as  that  which  we  describe,  so  little 
public  record  should  have  been  preserved  of  a 
man  so  note-worthy  as  Hale,  excites  our  sur 
prise.!  Strange  that  he  should  not  have  been 


*  The  Camp-Basket  is  made  of  ozier,  neatly  intertwined.  It 
is  divided  into  two  compartments  by  a  partition  in  the  centre. 
The  interior  is  carefully  lined  with  plaited  straw,  and  fragments 
of  glass,  the  debris  of  bottles,  that  when  whole  belonged  to 
Hale,  still  remain  within  it. 

t  Take  the  following  specimens  of  the  meagreness  of  records. 
1.  Extract  from  a  letter  of  an  American  officer  to  his  friend, 
dated  Harlem,  September  twenty-sixth,  1776,  and  published  in 
the  Boston  Gazette,  October  seventh,  1776 — "One  Hale,  on 
suspicion  of  being  a  spy,  was  taken  up,  and  dragged  without 
ceremony  to  the  execution  post,  and  hung  up."  2.  Extract 
from  a  letter  written  September  twenty -fifth,  1776,  by  James 
Drcwctt,  on  board  the  British  frigate  Mercury — "  On  the  22nd 


NATHAN     HALE.  143 

signalized,  in  his  own  day  and  time,  by  appro 
priate  obsequies,  by  funereal  devices,  by  solemn 
eulogies,  by  resolutions  expressive  of  his  merits, 
by  tablets  of  brass,  and  durable  monuments  of 
stone.  Surely  no  one  of  all  those  who  shed 
their  blood  for  the  glorious  liberty  we  now  enjoy, 
better  deserved  to  have  been  thus  commemora 
ted — for  upon  no  one,  save  himself,  devolved  a 
task  so  perilous,  bitter,  and  fatal.  Thirty-three 
years  after  his  death,  a  fort  in  the  harbor  of 
New  Haven,  Connecticut — built  of  brick  upon 
an  insulated  rock,  two  miles  from  the  end  of 
Long  wharf — was  called  after  the  hero — "  Fort 
Hale."  But  it  has  been  long  ungarrisoned,  and 
in  decay.*  A  nobler  memorial  than  this  was 

we  hung  a  man  who  was  sent  as  a  spy  by  Gen.  Washington." 
3.  Extract  from  a  letter  written  by  a  British  officer,  and  pub 
lished  in  the  Middlesex  [London]  Journal,  No.  1196,  December, 
1776— "New  York  Island,  Sept.  26,  1776.  Yesterday  [a  mis 
take  as  to  time]  we  hanged  an  officer  of  the  Provincials  who 
came  as  a  spy." 

*  One  of  the  New  Jersey  Chapters  of  the  Order  of  United 
Americans,  instituted  November  twenty-first,  1849,  is  entitled, 


144  NATHAN    HALE. 

desired — and  now,  at  last — in  one  locality  at 
least — public  gratitude  has  erected  it — and  in 
an  imposing  and  enduring  form. 

For  many  years,  in  his  native  town,  a  simple, 
rude  stone,  by  the  side  of  his  father's  grave,  in 
the  burial-ground  near  the  Congregational 
church,  told  the  passer-by  that  "Nathan  Hale 
Esq.,  a  Capt.  in  the  army  of  the  United  States, 
was  born  June  6th,  1755 — received  the  first 
honors  of  Yale  College  Sept.  1773"— and  "re 
signed  his  life  a  sacrifice  to  his  country's  liberty 
at  New  York,  Sept.  22d,  1776,  aged  22."*  But 

we  perceive,  the  "Nathan  Hale  Chapter,  tfo.  3,  0.  U.  A." 
Another  Association  of  the  same  kind,  entitled  "  Nathan  Hale 
Chapter,  No.  66,  0.  U.  A."  is  established  at  Williamsburgh, 
New  York.  At  a  "  fraternal  visit "  paid  by  this  to  the  Wash 
ington  Chapter  in  New  York  city,  September  twenty  -eighth, 
1855,  Hale  was  eloquently  called  to  remembrance  in  speeches 
upon  the  occasion,  by  D.  L.  Northrop  Esq.,  of  Brooklyn,  Hon. 
Joseph  H.  Petty,  Mr.  Shelley,  and  others. 

*  An  entry  also  of  his  death  was  made  upon  the  town  records 
of  Coventry — by  his  brother  Major  John  Hale — at  a  time  when 
the  particulars  of  his  capture  were  not  known  accurately.  It 
runs  thus :  "  Capt.  Nathan  Hale  the  son  of  Deac"  Richard 


NATHAN     HALE.  145 

this  did  not  satisfy  the  wishes  of  the  citizens  of 
Coventry,  and  vicinity,  and  of  many  in  Connec 
ticut  who  fondly  cherished  the  memory  of  the 
martyr — and  accordingly,  in  November,  1837, 
an  Association— called  the  "Hale  Monument 
Association" — was  formed,  for  the  purpose  of 
erecting  a  cenotaph  in  his  honor — one  that 
should  fitly  commemorate  his  life  and  services.* 
Appeal  was  made,  chiefly,  to  the  patriotism 
of  individuals  for  the  accomplishment  of  the 
purpose .  Congress— though  several  times  mem 
orialized  for  aid,  and  though  Select  Committees 
reported  in  favor  of  an  appropriation — yet— 
from  motives,  to  us  wholly  unsatisfactory,  of 


Hale  was  taken  in  the  City  of  New  York  By  the  Britons  and 
executed  as  a  spie  sometime  in  the  Month  of  September  A.  D. 
1776." 

*  The  day  on  whieh  it  was  formed  was  the  anniversary  day 
of  the  evacuation  of  New  York.  Hon.  A.  T.  Judson  delivered 
an  address  upon  the  occasion.  About  twenty  revolutionary 
soldiers  were  present,  and  a  large  party  partook  of  a  substantial 
repast.  It  was  a  day  of  great  interest  to  the  people  of  Cov 
entry. 

13 


NATHAN     HALE. 

public  policy — refused  to  grant  anything.  Rep 
resentatives  from  Connecticut — particularly  Hon 
orable  Messrs.  A.  T.  Judson,  J.  H.  Brockway, 
and  J.  M.  Niles — urged  the  matter  with  a  most 
commendable  zeal — but  in  vain.*  Congress  re 
mained  deaf  as  an  adder  to  their  appeal — as  it 
has  been  habitually,  of  late  years,  to  all  appeals 


*  The  late  lion.  Judge  Judson,  in  behalf  of  a  Select  Commit 
tee  of  the  House,  upon  petitions  praying  that  a  monument  might 
be  erected  to  the  memory  of  Hale,  submitted  a  favorable  Report 
and  Resolution,  January  nineteenth,  1836.  Hon.  Mr.  Niles,  in 
the  same  year,  strongly  supported  the  project,  when  petitions 
from  sundry  inhabitants  of  Connecticut  came  before  the  Sen. 
ate.  Hon.  Mr.  Brockway,  May  twenty-fifth,  1842,  in  behalf  of 
a  Select  Committee  of  the  House  on  the  subject,  also  submitted 
a  favorable  Report  and  Resolution,  and  pressed  the  matter  with 
patriotic  earnestness.  For  eight  successive  years  applications,  in 
one  form  and  another,  were  made  to  Congress — but  all  of  them 
failed,  as  stated  in  the  text.  The  first  petition  on  the  subject 
emanated  from  Coventry,  and  was  headed  by  Doctor  Nathan 
Howard,  who  married  Joanna,  the  sister  of  Captain  Nathan  Hale. 
The  second  was  drawn  up  by  Hon.  Thomas  S.  Williams  of 
Hartford,  and  was  numerously  signed  by  citizens  in  various 
parts  of  Connecticut.  Upon  this  a  report  was  made  by  a  Com 
mittee  of  Congress,  appropriating  one  thousand  dollars  for  a 
monument,  but  the  report  was  not  acted  upon. 


N  A  T  H  A  N     H  A  L  E  .  147 

of  this  character — and  would  not  bestow  a  stiver 
to  honor  one  who  died  signally,  not  for  the  lib 
erty  of  Connecticut  alone,  but  for  that  of  all 
the  United  Colonies.*  So  the  Association  to 


*  In  times  that  have  past,  Congress  could  expend  thousands 
of  dollars — and  most  justly — upon  a  pedestrian  statue  of  the 
Father  of  his  country,  and  thousands  more  to  commemorate, 
through  the  painter's  art,  some  of  the  grand  historical  events  of 
our  Revolution.  It  could  erect  monuments  to  Montgomery, 
Mercer,  Nash,  De  Kalb,  Gerry,  and  Brown.  It  could  grant  to 
Williams,  and  Paulding,  and  Van  "VVart,  the  captors  of  Andre, 
each  a  farm  of  the  value  of  five  hundred  dollars,  and  an  annuity  of 
two  hundred  dollars  through  life,  and  a  magnificent  silver  medal. 
It  could  employ  the  sculptor's  art  on  busts  of  Jay,  Ellsworth, 
and  Marshall.  It  could  vote  medals  of  gold,  and  swords  of 
costliest  workmanship,  to  Jackson,  Scott,  Ripley,  Harrison,  and 
to  numerous  officers  besides,  for  gallant  deeds  upon  the  land, 
and  to  Decatur,  Hull,  Perry,  Truxton,  McDonough,  and  many 
naval  heroes  more,  for  glorious  exploits  upon  the  seas.  It 
could  recite  in  its  resolutions,  in  glowing  terms,  the  services  of 
each,  and  proclaim,  as  it  did  in  Commodore  Truxton's  case,  that 
the  testimonials  of  the  American  nation  were  bestowed  because 
their  recipients  "  exhibited  an  example  worthy  of  the  American 
name."  And  yet  the  nation  could  not  say  as  much  for  Captain 
Hale,  when  petitioned  in  /its  behalf — nor  do  aught  in  his  honor 
How  was  it  with  England,  and  her  martyr  spy  t  Very  different. 


148  NATHAN     HALE. 

which  we  have  alluded — under  the  auspices, 
always  unclouded,  of  J.  W.  Boynton  Esquire,  its 
patriotic  and  indefatigable  Secretary — moved  on 
alone — and  by  means  of  private  subscriptions, 
by  Fairs,  by  Tea  Parties,  and  by  the  exhibition 
of  a  Drama  illustrating  the  services  and  fate  of 
Captain  Hale,  collected  funds,  and  excited  pub 
lic  interest  until  in  May,  1846,  the  State  of  Con 
necticut  granted  one  thousand  dollars,  and  in 
May,  1847,  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  more, 
from  its  public  Treasury  in  furtherance  of  the 
great  object* — and  the  Monument,  of  which, 


British  gratitude  erected  to  Andre  a  splendid  mausoleum,  even 
in  Westminster  Abbey — and  among  the  most  illustrious  dead  of 
the  British  Empire !  See  Appendix  D. 

*  The  ladies  of  Coventry,  Connecticut,  were  particularly  ac' 
tive  in  procuring  means  to  erect  the  monument  to  Hale,  and 
deserve,  as  they  will  receive,  the  especial  thanks  of  the  Public. 
In  1844,  on  the  first  Wednesday  in  May,  they  held  a  Fair  in 
the  old  church  of  the  First  Ecclesiastical  Society,  at  which  many 
useful  and  fancy  articles  were  collected,  and  contributions  were 
made  of  cash,  from  Coventry,  Hartford  and  other  places.  More 
than  three  thousand  persons  were  present,  and  the  receipts  were 
two  hundred  and  sixty-eight  dollars.  Refreshments  were  pro- 


NATHAN     HAL?:.  149 

opposite,  we  give  a  picture — arose,  "  a  fit  emblem 
both  of  the  events  in  memory  of  which  it  was 
raised,  and  of  the  gratitude  of  those  who  reared 
it" — arose  "  to  meet  the  sun  in  his  coming" — to 
ulet  the  earliest  light  of  the  morning  gild  it, 
and  parting  day  linger  and  play  on  its  summit ! ' 

vided,  and  the  Marshfield  Brass  Band,  and  the  Coventry  Glee 
Club,  were  in  attendance — gratuitously.  A  song,  beautifully 
printed  on  satin — was  prepared  for  the  occasion.  It  addressed 
the  "  Daughters  of  Freedom,"  as  having  assembled, 

•'  with  choicest  flowers 
To  deck  a  hero's  grave — 
To  shed  the  light  of  love  around 
The  memory  of  the  brave.'' 

"  Ye  came,"  glide  on  the  strains — 

'•-  Ye  came  with  hearts  that  oft  have  glowed 

At  his  soul-stirring  tale — 
To  wreathe  the  deathless  evergreen 

Around  the  name  of  Hale. 

Here  his  memorial  stone  shall  rise, 

In  Freedom's  hallowed  shade — 
Prouder  than  Andre's  trophied  tomb, 

'Mid  mightiest  monarchs  laid. 

So  shall  the  patriot's  honored  name 

Go  down  to  other  days— 
And  Love's  own  lyre  shall  sound  his  fame. 

In  thrilling  notes  of  praise." 

13* 


150  NATHAN     HALE. 

It  stands  upon  elevated  ground,  near  the  Con 
gregational  Church,  in  South  Coventry — and 
within  a  space,  enclosed  by  a  neat  iron  picketed 
fence,  which  abuts  on  an  old  Burying-yard,  that 
holds  among  other  ashes,  those  of  Hale's  own 
family.  Its  site  is  particularly  fine — for  on  the 
north  it  overlooks  that  long,  broad,  and  beauti 
ful  lake  of  Wangumbaug,  into  whose  oozy  depths, 
with  great  constancy,  Hale 

The  Drama,  to  which  reference  is  made  in  the  text,  was  in 
five  acts,  and  was  written  for  the  Hale  Monument  Association 
by  David  Trumbull  Esq.  It  was  exhibited  at  the  Meeting- 
House  in  South  Coventry,  with  accompanying  Tableaux.  One 
of  the  Tea-Parties,  to  which  reference  also  is  made,  was  given 
March  eleventh,  1 846,  by  the  young  ladies  of  South  Coventry — 
with  good  success.  One  dollar,  for  the  benefit  of  the  Hale  Asso 
ciation,  admitted  a  gentleman  and  lady.  By  May,  1846,  the 
whole  amount  collected  was  fifteen  hundred  dollars. 

Thus — one  way  and  another — with  untiring  zeal — the  noble 
design  of  a  Monument  to  Hale,  worthy  of  the  patriot,  was 
prosecuted — till  the  appropriation  from  the  Treasury  of  Con 
necticut — in  behalf  of  which — memory  pleasant  to  our  soul — 
we  had  the  satisfaction,  in  Senate,  of  giving  heartily  our  own 
voice  and  vote — rendered  the  project  certain  of  consummation. 


NATHAN     HALE.  151 

"  Cast  to  the  finny  tribe  the  baited  snare, 
Then  flung  the  wriggling  captives  into  air — " 

while  on  the  east,  commanding  a  view  of  scenery 
that  is  truly  noble,  it  literally  looks  through  a 
long  and  captivating  natural  vista  to  greet  "  the 
sun  in  its  rising."  The  Monument — the  origi 
nal  plan  of  which  was  drawn  by  Henry  Austin 
Esquire,  of  New  Haven — consists  of  a  pyramidal 
shaft,  resting  on  a  base  of  steps,  with  a  shelving 
projection  about  one-third  of  the  way  up  the  ped 
estal.  Its  material  is  hewn  Quincy  granite,  solid 
from  foundation  to  capstone,  and  embracing  one 
hundred  and  twenty-five  tons  of  stone.  It  is 
fourteen  feet  square  at  the  base,  and  its  height 
is  forty-five  feet.*  It  was  completed  in  1846— 


*  The  transportation  of  the  material  from  Quincy  to  Norwich, 
at  an  estimated  cost  of  four  hundred  dollars,  was  a  generous 
gratuity  on  the  part  of  the  Old  Colony,  Boston  and  Worcester, 
and  Norwich  and  Worcester  Rail  Road  Companies.  The  Hon. 
Xathan  Hale  of  Boston,  nephew  and  namesake  of  the  patriot  we 
commemorate,  and  at  the  time  President  of  the  second  of  these 
Companies,  was  nobly  active  in  procuring  this  result.  From 


152  NATHAN     HALE. 

under  the  superintendence  of  Solomon  Willard 
Esquire,  the  architect  of  the  Bunker  Hill  Monu 
mcnt — at  a  cost,  everything  included,  of  three 
thousand  seven  hundred  and  thirty-three  dollars 
and  ninety-three  cents,  and  bears  upon  its  sides 
the  following  inscriptions. 

[North  siclc.J 

Captain  Nathan  Hale. 
1776. 

[West  side.] 

B  o  K N    A  T    COVENTRY. 
JUNE    6  .   1755. 


Norwich  to  Coventry  the  material  was  transported  by  ox-teams, 
at  an  estimated  cost  of  about  five  hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars. 
On  the  seventh  of  April,  1846,  the  ground  was  first  broken  for 
the  foundation  of  the  monument,  which  was  laid  of  stone  quar 
ried  about  three-quarters  of  a  mile  east  of  its  site.  Messrs 
Hazelton  &  Co.,  of  Boston,  erected  the  cenotaph,  at  a  cost  of 
three  hundred  dollars,  and  completed  it  on  the  seventeenth  day 
of  September,  1846. 


NATHAN     HALE.  153 

[East  side.] 

DIED    AT    NEW    YORK. 
SEPT.    22.    1776. 

[South  side.] 

"  £  onljj  ncjrtt  tfjat  £  fjabt  tut  one  lift  to  lost  for  mji  rountrjj." 


Hale's  fate,  as  might  be  expected,  has  called 
out  at  times  the  Muse  of  Poetry — but  rarely 
however,  for  the  parchment  roll  of  his  history 
has  been,  hitherto,  wanting  to  Calliope,  and  Clio 
has  missed  him  in  her  half-opened  scroll.  Yet 
are  the  ten  lines  from  Doctor  Dwight — on  the 
Title  Page  of  this  Volume — nobly  commemora 
tive — and  so  also  are  many  lines  in  a,  poem  of 
considerable  length  which  was  dedicated  to  the 
memory  of  Hale,  but  a  short  time  after  his  death, 
by  a  personal  acquaintance  and  friend — one 
who  knew  and  loved  him  well.*  In  this  poem, 

*  The  name  of  the  author  is  unknown.     His  entire  poem, 
consisting  of  one  hundred  and  sixty  lines,  may  be  found  in  the 


154  NATHAN     HALE. 

the  author  describes  Hale  as  in  personal  appear 
ance  erect  and  tall,  with  a  "beauteous  face," 
that  was  marked  by  "innate  goodness,"  and  a 
frame,  which,  possessing  great  symmetry  and 
grace,  was  "  vigorous,  and  active  as  electric 

February  number  of  the  American  Historical  Magazine,  published 
in  New  Haven  in  1836.  He  prefaces  it  with  the  following  quo 
tation  from  Virgil : 

"  lieu  !  miserande  puer,  si  qua  fata  aspera  ruuipas, 
Tu  Marcullui?  cris  " — 

and  also  with  the  following  letter,  bearing  date  "  New  Haven, 
Aug.  9,  1784." 

"I  was  personally  acquainted  with,  and  entertained  a  high 
opinion  of  the  aimiable  Capt.  Nathan  Hale,  who  suffered  death 
in  New  York  by  the  hands  of  the  British  troops,  in  1776;  a 
character  on  some  accounts  similar  to  Major  Andre,  and  on 
many,  greatly  superior.  Every  man  who  regards  the  welfare 
of  his  country,  must  revere  a  patriot  who  died  in  its  defence  : 
and  while  the  English  Magazines,  News,  &c.,  were  filled  with  the 
praises  of  Major  Andre,  it  gave  me  no  small  degree  of  regret 
that  Capt.  Hale's  virtues  should  be  so  little  celebrated  in  the 
country  where,  and  for  which  he  died.  This  I  am  able  to  im 
pute  to  nothing  but  the  great  distress  in  which  America  was  at 
that  time  involved.  This  gave  rise  to  the  following  piece,  which 
was  wrote  soon  after  Hale's  death." 


NATHAN     HALE.  155 

flame."  He  represents  him  at  college  as  a  most 
dutiful  pupil,  and  as  possessing  "erudition  far 
beyond  his  years" — as  developing  a  lively  fancy, 
solid  judgment,  great  fondness  for  science,  and 
intense  admiration  for 

"  those  polished  lines, 
Where  Grecian  wit  and  Roman  genius  shines  " — 

and  as  having  his  soul  fired  by  the  examples  of 
those  great  worthies  of  a  former  age,  who  "live 
in  the  poet's  and  historian's  page." 

He  speaks  of  his  "blameless  carriage,  and 
modest  air" — characterizes  him  as 

"Above  the  vain  parade  and  idle  show, 

Which  mark  the  coxcomb,  and  the  empty  beau  " — 

and  describing  his  qualities  of  temper  and  con 
duct,  says  that 

"  Removed  from  envy,  malice,  pride,  and  strife, 

He  walked  through  goodness  as  he  walked  through  life ; 

A  kinder  brother  nature  never  knew, 

A  child  more  duteous,  or  a  friend  more  true." 


156  NATHAN     HALE. 

The  poet  next  follows  him  into  the  army  near 
Boston — where,  he  says,  Washington  early 
marked  him  as  "a  genius  fit  for  every  great 
design" — 

"  His  virtues  trusted,  and  his  worth  admired, 
And  mutual  friendship  both  their  bosoms  fired." 

He  next  follows  him  to  New  York — narrates 
the  task  imposed  on  him  by  Washington — his 
execution  of  it — his  arrest — his  arraignment 
before  his  enemies — his  undaunted  demeanor 
upon  the  occasion,  and  his  noble  frankness. 

"  Hate  of  oppression's  arbitrary  plan, 
The  love  of  freedom,  and  the  rights  of  man, 
A  strong  desire  to  save  from  slavery's  chain 
The  future  millions  of  the  western  main  " — 

these  are  the  ends  for  which,  most  truthfully, 
Hale  is  portrayed  as  having  "  served  with  zeal 
the  land  that  gave  him  birth" — and  as  having 
at  last  'met  his  fate'  in  a  scene,  to  paint  which, 
the  poet  exclaims, 


NATHAN    HALE.  157 

"  the  powers  of  language  fail, — 
Love,  grief  and  pity  break  the  mournful  tale. 
Not  Socrates,  or  noble  Russel  died, 
Or  gentle  Sidney,  Britain's  boast  and  pride, 
Or  gen'rous  Moore,  approached  life's  final  goal, 
With  more  composed,  more  firm,  and  stable  soul. 
The  flesh  sunk  clown,  to  mix  with  kindred  clay, — 
The  soul  ascended  to  the  realms  of  dav." 


With  similar  pathos,  and  not  ungracefully, 
does  a  poet  of  Hale's  own  native  place — the  late 
lamented  J.  S.  Babcock — sing  of  his  departed 
townsman.  "Full  stern  was  his  doom,"  he 
rehearses — 


"  but  full  firmly  he  died, 
No  funeral  or  bier  they  made  him, 
Not  a  kind  eye  wept,  nor  a  warm  heart  sighed, 
O'er  the  spot  all  unknown  where  they  laid  him. 


He  fell  in  the  spring  of  his  early  prime, 
With  his  fair  hopes  all  around  him ; 

He  died  for  his  birth-land — '  a  glorious  crime  ' — 
Ere  the  palm  of  his  fame  had  crowned  him. 

14 


158  NATHAN    HALE. 

He  fell  in  her  darkness — he  lived  not  to  see 

The  morn  of  her  risen  glory  ; 
But  the  name  of  the  brave,  in  the  hearts  of  the  free, 

Shall  be  twined  in  her  deathless  story." 

Nor  ungracefully  cither — but  on  the  other 
hand  with  much  of  lyric  force — does  Francis  M. 
Finch  Esquire — in  his  Poem  before  the  Linon- 
ian  Society  of  Yale  College  at  its  Centennial 
Anniversary  in  1853 — sing  of  the  departed  pat 
riot.  "To  drum-beat,"  he  proceeds,  in  a  few 
verses  which  we  extract  from  a  series— 

"  To  drum-beat  and  heart-beat, 

A  soldier  marches  by ; 
There  is  color  in  his  cheek, 

There  is  courage  in  his  eye, 
Yet  to  drum-beat  and  heart-beat 

In  a  moment  he  must  die. 

By  star-light  and  moon-light, 

He  seeks  the  Briton's  camp  ; 
He  hears  the  rustling  flag, 

And  the  armed  sentry's  tramp  ; 
And  the  star-light  and  moon-light 

His  silent  wanderings  lamp. 


NATHAN     HALE.  159 

With  slow  tread  and  still  tread, 

He  scans  the  tented  line ; 
And  he  counts  the  battery-guns 

By  the  gaunt  and  shadowy  pine  ; 
And  his  slow  tread  and  still  tread 

Gives  no  warning  sign." 

This  'warning  sign,'  however,  as  the  poet 
describes,  soon  comes.  "  With  a  sharp  clang,  a 
steel  clang,  the  patriot  is  bound" — and  now, 

"With  calm  brow,  steady  brow, 

He  listens  to  his  doom  ; 
In  his  look  there  is  no  fear, 

Nor  a  shadow  trace  of  gloom  ; 
But  with  calm  brow,  and  steady  brow, 

He  robes  him  for  the  tomb. 


In  the  long  night,  the  still  night, 

He  kneels  upon  the  sod  ; 
And  the  brutal  guards  withhold 

E'en  the  solemn  Word  of  God  ! 
In  the  long  night,  the  still  night, 

He  walks  where  Christ  hath  trod. 


160  NATHAN     HALE. 

'Neath  the  blue  morn,  the  sunny  morn, 

He  dies  upon  the  tree  ; 
And  he  mourns  that  he  can  lose 

But  one  life  for  Liberty ; 
And  in  the  blue  morn,  the  sunny  morn, 

His  spirit-wings  are  free. 


From  Fame-leaf  and  Angel-leaf, 

From  monument  and  urn, 
The  sad  of  Earth,  the  glad  of  Heaven, 

His  tragic  fate  shall  learn ; 
And  on  Fame-leaf  and  Angel-leaf 

The  name  of  HALE  shall  burn  !  " 

Romance  too  has  been  busy  with  Hale.  He 
has  been  made  the  hero  of  tales,  and  the  origi 
nator  of  sentiments,  in  which  the  imagination, 
and  not  fact,  has  had  the  principal  part  to  play. 
It  is  not  to  be  regretted  however,  that  even  in 
these  forms,  exaggerated  though  they  be,  his 
memory  is  kept  alive.  So  we  are  able  to  sepa 
rate  the  true  from  the  fanciful,  we  can  pardon 
almost  any  idealization  of  Hale's  character. 
We  can  forgive  the  halo  for  the  sake  of  the 


NATHAN     HALE.  161 

truly  noble  shape  which  it  encompasses.  When, 
however,  we  encounter  a  tribute  to  his  memory, 
not  heightened  in  coloring,  but  chaste  and 
natural,  like  that  which  we  are  now  about  to 
introduce  —  it  is  indeed  most  grateful  —  as  our 
Readers  also,  we  think,  will  find  it  to  be. 

It  proceeds,  in  the  form  of  an  epitaph,  in 
the  old  style,  from  the  antiquarian  pen  of  our 
worthy  friend  George  Gibbs  Esquire,  Librarian 
formerly  of  the  New  York  Historical  Society, 
who  has  kindly  furnished  us  with  it  —  and  we 
here  give  it  place. 


"  .Strancjtr  Bnuatf)  tfjte 
Hits  tljt  tet  of 

&  sps 
fof)o  pcrtsf)£&  upon  tfj*  (Gti 


tfjc  Storufr  mariUs  of  tf)*  <5rtat 

tf)«  £f)riius  of  $ero*s 
fntomfo  not  oiu,  more  luortf)j  of 

S^onor 

tfjan  ^tm  to^o  ten 
slttys  fjis  last 

u* 


162  NATHAN     HALE. 

Nations 

fcoto  tottf)  xtbmiut  itforc  tf)t  fcust 

of  fjim  tofio  fott* 

a  ejlorious  IBeatf) 

urcjcfc  on  fcg  tf)t  jsounb"  of  tfjt 


anfc  tf)t  scouts  of 


i3ut  iy^at  rtitrtnct,  ix»^at  Ijonor 
is  not  but  to  ont 

tofjo  for  fits  rountrj  tntounttrtfc 
tbtn  an  infamous  btatfj 
5oot^elj  ts  no  jssmpatfjj 
animate  ij  no  prat'st." 


In  connection,  and  in  comparison  with  Hale, 
the  image  of  the  brave  and  unfortunate  Andre 
rises,  of  course,  to  the  contemplation  of  the 
Header.  Let  us  look  at  them — side  by  side — 
and  in  contrast — the  one  an  American,  the  other 
a  British  spy — each  a  distinguished  victim — the 
one  to  his  love  of  country — the  other  to  "his 
own  imprudence,  ambition,  and  love  of  glory"- 


NATHAN     HALE.  168 

each  a  martyr — the  one  for  liberty — the  other 
for  power.  They  were  both  gallant  officers. 
They  were  both  accomplished  men — Andre  the 
most  so  by  education,  as  having  enjoyed  the 
highest  advantages,  and  more  used  than  Hale 
to  polished  society.  He  could  both  draw 
and  paint  exquisitely — which  Hale  could  not — 
and  he  was  better  versed  than  the  latter  in  ele 
gant  literature.  They  were  both  men  of  striking- 
personal  appearance.  They  would  have  been 
called  graceful,  beautiful,  and  manly,  by  all. 
Each  possessed  a  lively  sensibility.  Each  was 
cheerful,  affable,  amiable,  honorable,  magnan 
imous.  Each  was  admired  in  all  social  circles, 
and  won  the  hearts  of  hosts  of  friends. 

Let  us  look  at  the  two  now  in  their  respective 
missions.  Andre,  upon  his  own,  did  not  volun 
teer.  It  was  upon  Arnold's  solicitation,  forti 
fied  by  considerations  of  friendship  between 
Andre  and  the  traitor's  accomplished  wife — and 
at  the  direct  request  of  Sir  Henry  Clinton  him 
self,  of  whose  military  family  Andre  formed  a 
part,  and  to  whom,  for  kindness  that  had  been 


164  NATHAN     HALE. 

"  lavish,"  Andre  confesses  obligations  the  most 
profound — that  the  British  Aid  de  Camp,  not 
dreaming  to  enact  the  spy,  and  with  in  fact  no 
dangers  then  in  prospect,  consented,  not  prof 
fered  to  undertake  his  task. 

But  not  so  with  Hale.  He,  upon  his  mission, 
volunteered.  Soon  as  the  wish  of  Washington 
was  made  known — biassed  by  no  considerations 
of  private  friendship,  and  without  thought  of 
requiting  personal  obligations  either  to  the 
Commander  in  chief,  or  to  any  other  officer  or 
man — in  view  of  dangers  most  imminent,  from 
which  all  others  shrank — in  full  view  of  them — 
and  in  the  face  of  earnest  entreaty  to  the  con 
trary—offered  himself  to  discharge  the  trust. 

Andre,  when  he  left  New  York,  had  no  idea 
of  passing  within  the  American  lines.  He  was 
specially  instructed  by  Clinton  not  to  do  so— 
not  to  change  his  dress  as  a  British  officer — and 
he  did  not,  until,  as  he  says  himself,  he  was 
"  betrayed  into  the  vile  condition  of  an  enemy  in 
disguise."  He  was  to  go  to  Dobb's  Ferry 
only — upon  the  borders  merely  of  neutral 


NATHAN     HALE.  165 

ground — and  there,  under  a  flag  of  truce,  settle 
with  Arnold  the  "pretended  mercantile  trans 
action" — and  it  was  the  voice  of  the  sentinel, 
in  the  darkness  of  night,  at  Smith's  house, 
which  first  gave  him  intimation  of  the  "unex 
pected  circumstance"  that  he  was  within  the 
American  beat,  and  in  danger.  "Against  my 
stipulation,  my  intention,  and  without  my 
knowledge  beforehand,"  he  writes  to  Washing 
ton,  "I  was  conducted  within  one  of  your 
posts — I  was  involuntarily  an  impostor." 

Hale,  on  the  other  hand,  started  from  the 
American  camp,  fully  aware  '  beforehand'  that 
he  was  to  change  his  dress,  and  assume  a  dis 
guise — that  he  was  to  pass  within  the  British 
lines — into  their  midst — up  to  the  very  muzzles 
of  their  muskets,  and  the  mouths  of  their  ord 
nance — that  he  was  in  fact  to  be,  in  all  the 
shifts,  and  shades,  and  aims,  and  efforts  of  his 
mission,  the  spy.  He  undertook  then,  at  the 
outset,  what  Andre  not  only  did  not,  but  never 
even  contemplated,  nor  would,  we  believe,  but 
for  an  unforeseen  necessity,  have  for  a  moment 


166  NATHAN     HALE. 

endured.  His  moral  courage,  therefore,  rises 
higher  than  that  of  Andre's — higher  far.  For 
the  sake  of  the  sublime  cause  in  which  he  was 
engaged,  he  became  voluntarily  '  an  impostor.' 
He  took  upon  himself  a  great  ignominy  to  start 
with.  Andre  took  none — bore  no  burden  what 
ever  upon  his  spirits.  Not  even  a  fancied 
shadow  projected  itself,  for  a  moment,  over  the 
dial  of  his  honor,  when  he  left  the  Head  Quar 
ters  of  his  Commander  in  chief,  and  he  pushed 
forward  to  the  Vulture  at  Teller's  Point,  "  carol 
ling  as  he  went." 

The  motives  which  inspired  Hale  and  Andre 
in  their  respective  expeditions,  are  well  worthy 
of  consideration,  and  furnish  striking  contrast. 
"  What  was  to  have  been  your  reward,  in  case 
you  had  succeeded?" — inquired  Major  Tall- 
madge  of  his  prisoner,  as  the  latter  sat  on  the 
after  seat  of  the  barge  in  which  he  was  borne, 
under  escort,  from  West  Point  to  Tappan. 
u  Military  glory  was  all  that  I  sought,"  replied 
Andre — "and  the  thanks  of  my  general,  and 
the  approbation  of  my  king,  would  have  been 


NATHAN     HALE.  167 

a  rich  reward  for  such  an  undertaking."  Yes, 
military  renown — martial  preferment — the  office 
of  Brigadier  General  in  the  British  army,  offered 
him  in  advance  as  a  glittering  prize — the  c  big- 
wars '  and  the  'plumed  troop'  to  make  his 
6  ambition  virtue ' — these,  and  Clinton's  thanks, 
and  the  compliments  of  royalty,  were  the 
motives  which  prompted  Andre — motives  which, 
however  elevated  they  may  be  thought  to  be, 
and  in  certain  relations  are,  yet  in  true  great 
ness,  and  dignity,  fall  far  below  those  which 
prompted  Hale. 

Was  Hale  willing  to  hazard  his  life,  that  as  a 
warrior,  and  in  this  character  alone,  he  might 
"instil  his  memory  through  a  thousand  years?" 
Not  at  all.  No  martial  allurement,  of  any  kind, 
enslaved  his  imagination — ardent  though  it 
was — or  flattered  his  hope,  or  stimulated  his 
ambition.  No  promotion  was  promised — none 
was  expected.  No  reward  in  pelf  was  pledged. 
"  Surrounded  from  his  birth,"  as  one  of  his 


168  NATHAN   HALE. 

grand-nephews*  has  justly  said,  "with  the  doc 
trine  that  men  should  do  right  because  it  is 
right,  he  went  upon  his  hazardous  mission  just 
because  it  was  right  to  go — not  thinking  what 
bodies  would  say,  nor  expecting  or  caring  to  be 
a  hero."  It  was  a  pure  sense  of  duty — a  mag 
nificent  inspiration  direct  and  deep  from  the  soul 
of  patriotism  itself — that  impelled  Hale  to  his 
task,  and  that  bore  him  onward — unlike  Andre, 
thoughtless  of  fame — unlike  Andre,  thoughtless 
of  reward — unlike  Andre,  with  no  motive  but 
the  one  engrossing,  unpolluted,  serene  thought 
of  '  being  useful '  to  his  country — onward  to 
risk,  to  capture,  and  to  death. f 

The  peril  while  engaged  in  their  expeditions — 
here  again  the  parallel  between  Andre  and  Hale 
is  in  favor  of  the  latter.  Andre  experienced 
scarce  any  exposure  until  he  reached  Smith's 


*  The  late  Rev.  David  Hale,  of  New  York. 

t "  Viewed  in  any  light,"  says  Sparks,  most  justly,  the  act 
of  Hale  "  must  be  allowed  to  bear  unequivocal  marks  of  patri 
otic  disinterestedness  and  self-devotion." 


NATHAN     HALE.  169 

house  near  Haverstraw — and  there  but  slight — 
a  little  more  at  King's  Ferry,  on  his  attempted 
return,  near  certain  Whig  loungers  over  a  bowl 
of  punch — more  still  near  Crompond,  in  the 
immediate  presence  of  an  American  patrolling 
party,  and  of  the  inquisitive  Captain  Boyd — but 
after  this  time,  but  little  again  until  from  the 
bushes  at  Tarry  town,  he  was  seized  and  secured 
by  the  patriot  hands  of  Paulding,  and  Williams 
and  Van  Wart.  Thirty-six  hours  only  elapsed 
from  the  time  he  left  the  secure  deck  of  the 
Vulture,  and  the  shrouded  foot  of  Mount  Long 
Clove,  till  he  became  a  captive — and  during  this 
short  interval,  his  chief,  nay  almost  his  only 
peril  was  among  the  Cowboys  and  Skinners  who 
infested  the  far-famed  neutral  ground  of  West- 
chester  County.  But  Hale  was  upon  his  mis 
sion,  ere  he  was  made  a  prisoner,  about  two 
weeks  * — a  long  period  indeed  as  compared  with 
that  occupied  by  Andre — and  filled  up,  the 

*  Hale  "  was  gone  about  a  fortnight  before  I  knew  what  had 
become  of  him."     Asher  Wright. 

15 


170  NATHAN     HALK. 

whole  of  it,  with  risks  far  more  constant  and 
glaring,  not  alone  among  bandits  unprincipled 
and  perfidious  as  those  in  whose  proximity 
Andre  journeyed,  but  also  in  the  immediate 
presence  of  the  foe,  and  within  the  very  circuits 
of  their  encampments. 

The  behaviour  of  Hale  and  Andre  immedi 
ately  after  their  capture  merits  comparison — it 
was  in  some  points  so  strikingly  similar.  Truth 
ful  by  impulse — "too  little  accustomed  to  du 
plicity,"  either  of  them,  long  to  'succeed'  in 
it — staggering  too,  each  of  them,  under  the 
weight  of  evidence  that  seemed  resistless — they 
both  made  a  clean  breast  of  it,  and  confessed. 
The  British  officer  did  it,  seeking  some  mitiga 
tion  of  his  case,  but  only  such,  however,  "as 
could  be  granted  on  the  strict  principles  of 
honor  and  military  usage."  Hale  sought  no 
alleviation  of  his  own  case,  of  any  kind — but 
respectfully  triumphed  over  his  success,  such  as 
he  had  obtained,  and  proudly  confronted  im 
pending  punishment. 

Andre   acknowledged    himself   an   Adjutant 


NATHAN     HALE.  171 

General  in  the  British  army — but  not  a  spy- 
certainly  not  an  'intentional'  one.  It  was  his 
purpose,  as  in  his  letter  to  Washington  he  says, 
to  'rescue'  himself  "from  an  imputation  of 
having  assumed  a  mean  character  for  treacher 
ous  purposes,  or  self-interest."  Hale  acknowl 
edged  himself  a  Captain  in  the  American  Con 
tinental  service — but  no  scruples  of  fancied 
honor,  no  penitential  casuistries,  stood  for  a 
moment  between  himself  and  the  part  he  had 
acted.  He  pronounced  himself  to  General 
Howe,  at  once  and  unequivocally,  a  spy — and 
was  ready,  he  affirmed,  for  the  spy's  fate. 

Upon  trial,  Hale  was  manly,  dignified, 
respectful,  prompt,  unembarrassed,  without  dis 
guise.  So  was  Andre.  Each  stated  "with 
truth  everything  relating  to  himself."  Neither 
used  any  words  "to  explain,  palliate,  or  defend 
any  part  of  his  conduct."  Each  without  sur 
prise,  without  comment,  without  a  murmur, 
without  even  a  complaining  look,  received  his 
sentence.  And  each,  after  the  sentence,  retired 
to  his  quarters  "tranquil  in  mind" — the  one, 


172  NATHAN     HALE. 

Hale — heaven  knows  where — to  some  foul  bar 
rack,  or  tent,  or  an  'oaken  bed'  in  some  cell  of 
the  Provost — the  other,  Andre,  to  '  decent  quar 
ters  ' — specially  ordered  by  Washington  himself 
to  be  such — to  a  well  furnished  apartment, 
where,  in  pursuance  of  directions  from  the  same 
high  authority,  and  in  conformity  with  the  incli 
nation  of  all  on  duty,  he  was  'treated  with 
civility' — was  comfortably  lodged  and  fed — 
from  the  table  principally  of  the  American 
Commander  in  chief  himself — and  '.'  every  atten 
tion  paid  to  him  suitable  to  his  rank  and  char 
acter." 

The  interval  between  condemnation  and  death 
was  spent  by  each  in  a  frame  of  mind  for  the 
most  part  composed,  but  at  times,  we  must 
believe,  agitated  and  agonized — not  by  the  fear 
of  death — but  at  thought  of  rupturing,  so 
soon,  by  the  mortal  throe,  earth's  potent  ties — 
nay,  in  case  of  each  of  the  captives,  some  ties 
that  are  the  tenderest  and  most  engrossing  of 
all  that  bind  man  to  this  world.  Andre  had  his 
mother  and  two  sisters,  dependent,  cacli  of 


NATHAN     HALE.  173 

them,  in  some  degree  upon  his  commission  for 
support.  Though  "Hope's  soft  star,"  as  his 
friend  Miss  Seward  expresses  it,  had  "shone 
trembling  on  his  love,"  he  yet  cherished  his 
"  Honora."  He  had  too  his  country  to  live  for, 
and  serve.  And  so  had  Hale — a  bleeding  coun 
try,  in  a  crisis  of  danger,  to  love  and  fight  for — 
and  troops  of  fond  relatives  and  friends  upon 
whom  to  outpour  his  affection — and  an  "  Alicia" 
too,  to  admire  and  wear  as  the  richest  jewel  in 
his  heart.  Sombre  thoughts  then,  at  times — 
pangs  even — must  have  come  over  the  souls  of 
the  two  sufferers,  as  in  the  solitude  of  their  im 
prisonment,  they  contemplated  their  near  and 
dark  approaching  destiny. 

Yet — most  of  the  time — we  are  assured,  their 
appearance  was  marked  by  that  same  "  serenity 
of  temper,  and  winning  gentleness  of  manners,'? 
which  had  been  conspicuous  in  their  lives. 
Andre,  in  his  imprisonment,  was  surrounded  by 
sympathy  and  attention.  So  many  and  extenu 
ating  were  the  circumstances  in  his  favor,  that 
15* 


174  NATHAN     HALE. 

"even  the  sternest  advocate  for  justice  could 
not  regard  his  impending  fate  without  regret,  or 
a  wish  that  it  might  be  averted."  But  Hale,  as 
we  have  seen,  had  no  such  kindness  near  him — 
not  one  drop  even  for  his  parched  and  yearning 
heart — but  all  around  him  was  dissonance, 
malediction,  and  severity.  He  was  alone  in  his 
own  desolation. 

Each  of  the  captives  wrote  letters  in  prison — 
Hale  to  his  home — Andre  to  General  Washing 
ton,  and  to  Clinton.  Andre  in  prison  dreaded 
the  gibbet,  and  implored  to  die  a  soldier's 
death — by  the  bullet.  No  such  apprehension, 
that  we  can  learn,  tortured  Hale.  Andre,  with 
a  pen,  quietly  sketched  his  own  likeness,  seated 
at  a  table  in  his  guard-room,  on  the  morning  of 
the  day  fixed  for  his  execution.*  Hale  had  no 
such  resource  for  melancholy  diversion — nor  is 
it  probable  that  he  Avould  have  used  it,  had  it 


*  Sec  a  f'ac  simile  of  it  on  the  page  opposite.  The  original 
is  in  the  Trunihull  Gallery  at  Yale  College.  The  likeness  i* 
•Iccmed  very  accurate. 


NATHAN     HALE.  177 

been  in  his  power,  in  preference  to  last  words, 
to  meditation,  and  to  prayer. 

Each  received  with  calmness  notice  of  the 
fatal  hour.  Each  marched  firmly  to  the  place 
of  execution,  save  that  disappointment  at  the 
mode  of  death  made  the  frame  of  Andre  shud 
der  for  a  moment  when  he  first  saw  the  gibbet. 
"It  will  be  but  a  momentary  pang,"  however, 
he  said,  and  with  his  own  hands  bared,  band 
aged,  and  noosed  himself  for  the  occasion.* 
Other  and  barbarous  hands,  hands  of  true  raven 
blackness,  prepared  Hale  for  his  exit — and  his 
own  mortal  agony  was  witnessed  by  but  few — 
and  these  strangers  all  to  the  sufferer — persons 
chiefly  of  humble  condition,  with  hearts,  most 
of  them,  of  flint — and  who  were  assembled 
more  from  prurient  curiosity — just  to  see  a  spy 

*  "  The  hangman,  who  was  painted  black,  offered  to  put  on 
the  noose. — "  Take  off'  your  black  hands !  "  said  Andre  ;  then 
putting  on  the  noose  himself,  took  out  his  handkerchief,  tied  it 
on,  drew  it  up,  bowed  with  a  smile  to  his  acquaintances,  and 
died."  Testimony  of  David  Williams.  \ 


178  NATHAN     HALE. 

hung — than  from  any  motives  of  compassion. 
But  Andre  had  around  him  an  immense  con 
course  of  people — a  large  detachment  of  Ameri 
can  troops,  and  almost  all  the  American  general 
and  field  officers — and  the  entire  body  garlanded 
him  with  their  sympathy — gratefully  intensified 
the  scene,  and  soothed  the  sufferer,  with  the 
tribute  of  their  silent,  deep,  and  universal 
mourning. 

Hale  met  his  fate  unostentatiously.  Andre, 
in  complete  British  uniform — in  a  coat  of  daz 
zling  scarlet,  and  under-clothes  of  brightest 
buff — with  his  long,  beautiful  hair  carefully 
arranged — and  with  his  hands  upon  his  hips — 
paced  his  own  coffin  back  and  forth — gazed  com 
placently  at  the  fatal  beam  over  his  head,  and 
upon  the  crowd  around  him — and  then  daunt- 
lessly  too,  like  Hale,  gave  himself  up  to  that 
'  tremendous  swing,'  as  an  eye-witness  reports  it, 
which,  almost  instantly,  closed  his  mortal  career. 

The  last  words  of  the  sufferers — the  compari- 
son  here  is  indeed  moving  and  instructive. — "  / 


NATHAN     HALE.  179 

pray  you  to  bear  me  ivitness"  said  Andre  to  Colo 
nel  Scammel,  "that  I  meet  my  fate  like  a  brave 
•man!" — "/  only  regret"  said  Hale,  "that  I 
have  but  one  life  to  lose  for  my  country!" — Is 
it  not  obvious  ? — the  one  was  measuring  himself 
in  the  eyes  of  men — the  other  in  the  eyes  of  his 
Maker — the  one  was  thinking  of  reputation— 
the  other  of  usefulness — the  one  of  heroism — 
the  other  of  benefaction — Andre  of  himself— 
Hale  of  his  country.  The  dying  moment 
then — that  ordeal  which,  poignantly  as  by  fire, 
tests  the  natural  disposition — that  solemn  cri 
sis  when  eternity  is  wont  to  sweep  every  shade 
of  delusion  from  the  soul  of  man,  and  truth,  if 
ever,  speaks  in  its  genuine  purity  and  power 
from  his  quivering  lips — the  dying  moment  tes 
tifies  to  Hale's  superior  sublimity  of  character 
as  compared  with  Andre. 

It  was  not  the  American  martyr,  at  this  time- 
be  it  remarked — who  was  thinking  of  worldly 
fame,  and  worldly  honors.  He  summoned  no 
one  to  bear  witness  to  his  fortitude.  No  desire 


180  NATHAN     HALE. 

had  he,  like  Andre,  to  concentrate  admiration 
for  the  iron  strength  with  which  he  could  endure 
bodily  suffering.  No  attempt  did  he  make  to 
brace  his  nerves  by  stimulating  visions  of  posthu 
mous  applause.  He  had  not  the  first  faint  con 
ception  even  of  shining  in  after  ages,  as  a  star 
among  warrior-martyrs — as  a  brave  man  mere 
ly — as  the  hero,  the  Promethean  hero  of  the 
American  Revolution.  The  lips  of  posterity 
might  praise  him,  he  may  have  desired — but  it 
was  only  for  his  exalted  moral  purposes,  and  for 
his  utter  disinterestedness  of  spirit,  that  he 
could  have  wished  its  approbation.  It  was  only 
because  under  the  impelling  power  of  a  free, 
conscientious,  self-rewarding,  inspiring  sense  of 
patriotic  duty,  he  struggled  for  the  liberty  and 
happiness  of  his  fellow-men — because  he  ex 
pired,  nobly  breathing  out  the  whole  body  of  his 
affections  upon  his  native  land. 

Thus  to  be  embalmed  in  the  memory  of  man 
kind,  is  worthy  of  every  one's  aspiration.  It  is 
a  crown  of  immortality  such  as  Hale  himself, 


NATHAN    HALE.  181 

had  he  foreseen  it,  would  never  have  rejected — 
and  which,  thanks  to  the  gratitude  which  his 
life  and  conduct,  wherever  known,  can  not  fail 
to  enkindle,  he  wears  now — glorious  upon  his 
brow — and  will  continue  to  wear,  brighter  and 
brighter  still,  so  long  as  time  and  posterity  exist 
to  chronicle"  the  happy  years  of  our  Republic, 


16 


APPENDIX. 


A. 

Page  13. 

GENEALOGY  OF  THE  FAMILY  OF  CAPT.  NATHAN  HALE. 
By  Rev.  Edward  E.  Hah  of  Worcester,  Mass. 

NATHAN  HALE  was  directly  descended  from  Robert  Hale  of 
Charlestown,  Mass.,  one  of  the  early  settlers  of  the  "Bay 
Colony,"  in  that  State. 

Robert  Hale  belonged  to  the  family  of  Hales  of  Kent,  En 
gland.  There  were  in  England  at  that  time  at  least  three  large 
families  of  the  name,  belonging  to  different  parts  of  the  king 
dom.  These  were  the  Hales  of  Kent,  the  Hales  of  Hertford, 
and  the  Hales  of  Gloucestershire.  Of  the  last  of  these  fami 
lies  was  the  celebrated  Sir  Matthew  Hale,  who  was  nearly  con 
temporary  with  Robert  Hale,  the  emigrant  to  America,  having 
been  born  in  1609,  and  died  in  1676. 

From  the  Hales  of  Hertfordshire  spring  the  family  of  Thomas 
Hale,  one  of  the  early  settlers  of  Newbury,  Massachusetts.  Of 

16* 


186  APPENDIX. 

this  family  arc  a  large  part  of  those  persons  who  now  bear  the 
name  of  Hale  in  New  England.* 

Robert  Hale  of  Charlestown,  and  his  descendants,  of  whom 
some  account  will  here  be  given,  retained  the  coat  of  arms  of 
the  Hale  family  of  Kent ;  to  which  therefore,  there  seems  no 
doubt,  that  they  belong.t 

This  family  existed  in  Kent  as  early  at  least  as  the  reign  of 
Edward  III.  Nicholas  at  Hales,  then  resided  at  Hales-place, 
Halden,  Kent.  His  son,  Sir  Robert  Hales,  was  Prior  of  the 
Knights  of  St.  John,  and  Lord  High  Treasurer  of  England. 
He  was  murdered  by  "Wat  Tyler's  mob,  on  Tower  Hill,  in  1381. 
His  brother  Sir  Nicholas  de  Hales  was  the  ancestor  of  three 
subdivisions  of  the  family,  described  in  Halsted's  Kent,  as  the 
Hales  of  Kent,  of  Coventry,  and  of  Essex. 

To  the  Kent  family  belonged, — we  may  say  in  passing  down 
to  the  emigration  of  Robert  Hales, — Sir  James  Hales,  whose 
suicide  by  drowning  led  to  the  "  case  of  Dame  Hales  "  report 
ed  by  Plowden,  and  commented  on  by  the  clowns  in  Hamlet. 
"  Sir  James  Hales  was  dead,  and  how  came  he  to  his  death  ? 
It  may  be  answered,  by  drowning ;  and  who  drowned  him  ? 
Sir  James  Hales ;  and  when  did  lie  drown  him  ?  In  his  life 


*In  the  memoir  of  the  late  David  Hale,  of  New  York,  nephew  of  Capt. 
Nathan,  by  Ilev.  Mr.  Thompson,  their  descent  is  erroneously  attributed  to 
the  same  family.  Mr.  Thompson  undoubtedly  was  misled  by  the  impres 
sion  at  one  time  entertained  by  our  distinguished  genealogist,  Mr.  Somerby, 
that  Robert  Hale  of  Charlestown  was  the  son  of  Richard  Hale,  the  High 
Sheriff  of  Hertfordshire.  But  this  Robert  remained  in  England  at  least  as 
late  as  1666. 

t  Gules,  three  broad  arrows  feathered  argent. 


GENEALOGY.  1ST 

time.  So  that  Sir  James  Hales,  being  alive,  caused  Sir  James 
Hales  to  die,  and  the  act  of  the  living  man  was  the  death  of  the 
dead  man.  And  then  for  this  offence  it  is  reasonable  to  punish 
the  living  man  who  committed  the  offence,  and  not  the  dead 
man."  Such  and  much  more  is  the  reasoning  of  one  of  the 
judges,  which  is  directly  alluded  to  by  Shakespeare  in  the 
"  Crowncr's  quest  Law"  of  the  clowns  in  Hamlet. 

Of  the  same  family,  after  Kobert  Hale  emigrated  to  America, 
was  Sir  Edward  Hales,  the  loyal  companion  of  James  II.  in  his 
exile ; — made  by  him  Earl  of  Tenterden  and  Viscount  Ton- 
stall. 

The  name  in  England  appears  to  have  been  spelt  now  with  a 
final  s — and  now  without.  Hale-place  near  Canterbury,  a 
handsome  seat  now  occupied  by  the  family,  bears  the  same 
name  which  the  family  in  New  England  bears, — and  its  resi 
dents  spell  their  name  in  the  same  way. 

The  family  in  New  England  begins,  as  has  been  said,  with 

GEN.  I.  iKobert  Hale,  who  arrived  in  Massachusetts  in 
1632.  He  was  one  of  those  set  off  from  the  first  church  in 
Boston  to  form  the  first  church  in  Charlestown,  in  1632; — of 
this  church  he  was  a  deacon.  He  was  a  blacksmith  by  trade, — 
but  appears  to  have  also  had  a  gift,  which  has  been  inherited  by 
many  of  his  descendants,  for  the  practical  application  of  the 
mathematics.  For  he  was  regularly  employed  by  the  General 
Court  as  a  Surveyor  of  new  plantations,  until  his  death,  which 
took  place  July  19,  1659.  His  wife's  name  was  Jane.  After 
his  death  she  married  Richard  Jacob  of  Ipswich,  and  died  July, 
1679. 


188  APPENDIX. 

JRobcrt  Hale  had  the  following  children ; 

GEN.  II.     2Rev.  John  Hale;  b.  June  3,  1636;  d.  May  15, 

1700;  3Mary;  b.  May  17,  1639;  m.  Wilson;  4Zacha- 

riah;  b.  April  3,   1641;  d.  June  5,  1643;  5Samuel ;  d.  1679. 
"Johanna;  b.  1638;  m.  John  Larkin ;  d.  1685.     Of  these 

2Rev.  John  Hale,  graduated  at  Harvard  College  in  1657.  He 
was  settled  as  the  first  minister  of  Beverly,  Mass.,  when  the 
first  church  of  Beverly  was  separated  from  Salem  in  1667  ;  and 
remained  in  this  charge  to  his  death.  He  was  one  of  three 
chaplains  to  the  unfortunate  New  England  expedition  to  Canada 
in  1690.  In  this  expedition  he  was  taken  prisoner,  but  soon 
released.  Two  years  after,  the  Salem  witchcraft  excited  the 
whole  province.  Mr.  Hale  was  present  at  the  examinations  of 
some  of  those  accused,  and  participated  in  the  religious  exer 
cises  at  their  trials.  But  in  October,  a  person  in  Wenham 
accused  Mrs.  Hale  of  witchcraft.  The  accusation  disabused 
him  of  any  delusion  he  had  been  under,  and  not  him  only,  but 
the  whole  community.  From  that  moment  the  whole  tide  turn 
ed, — and  the  progress  of  infatuation  was  at  an  end.  In  1697, 
he  wrote  and  published  "  A  modest  inquiry  into  the  nature  of 
witchcraft,  and  how  persons  guilty  of  that  crime  may  be  con 
victed  ;  and  the  means  used  for  their  discovery  discussed,  both 
negatively  and  affirmatively  according  to  Scripture  and  experi 
ence."  In  this  discussion  he  laments  the  errors  and  mistakes 
of  what  he  knew  as  the  "  Witchcraft  delusion." 

He  was  three  times  married.  1st,  to  Rebeckah  Byles,  daugh 
ter  of  Henry  Byles  of  Sarum,  England.  She  died  April  13, 
1683,  act.  45  years.  2nd,  Mar.  3,  1684,  to  Mrs.  Sarah  Noyes, 


GENEALOGY.  189 

of  Newbury.  She  died  May  20,  1695,  act  41 ;  and  3rd,  Aug. 
8,  1698,  to  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Clark  of  Newbury,  who  survived 
him.  By  the  first  two  of  these  wives  he  had  the  following  chil 
dren. 

GEN.  III.  1.  7Rebeckah;  b.  Apr.  28,  1666;  d.  May  7, 
1681.  2.  ^Robert;  b.  Nov.  3,  1688;  d.  1719.  He  was  the 
father  of  Col.  Robert  Hale  of  Beverly,  who  accompanied  Shir 
ley  to  the  siege  of  Louisburg.  The  family  mansion  at  Beverly 
remains  in  the  family  of  his  descendants,  being  now  occupied 
by  Mr.  Bancroft.  The  male  line  in  this  family  is  extinct. 

3.  9Rev.  James;  b.  Oct.  14,  1685;  d.  1742.     He  was  minis- 
ter  of  Ashford,   Connecticut,  and  left  a  son,  James  Hale,  from 
whom  a  large  family  descended.     Of  these  Robert  Hale,  b. 
1749,  was  an  officer  in  the  Revolution, — and  perhaps  others. 

4.  10Samuel;  b.  Aug.  13,  1687  ;  d.  about  1724. 

5.  "Johanna;  b.  June  18,  1689. 

6.  12John  ;  b.  Aug.  24,  1692.     He  was  drowned  by  the  over 
setting  of  a  boat  in  Wells  River, — the  only  person  drowned  of 
the  party,  though  the  best  swimmer.     He  left  no  sons. 

Of  the  children  of  2Rev.  John  Hale,  the  fourth,  as  named 
above,  was  10Samuel.  He  settled  in  Newbury,  Massachusetts, 
where  on  the  26th  of  August,  1714,  he  married  Apphia  Moody, 
who  was  born  June  23,  1693.  He  lived  in  that  part  of  New 
bury  known  as  Newburyport,  and  there  all  his  children  were 
born.  He  afterwards  removed  to  Portsmouth,  where  he  died 
about  the  year  1724.  His  children  were 

GEN.  IV.  1.  13 Joanna;  b.  June,  1715;  d.  about  1792;  m. 
Capt.  Stephen  Gerrish  of  Boscawen,  N.  H, 


190 


APPENDIX. 


2.  "Richard;  b.  Feb.  28,  1717;  d.  June  1,  1802;  lived  and 
died  at  Coventry. 

3.  15Samuel;  b.  Aug.  24,  1718;—  gr.  H.  C.  1740;  d.  July, 
1807.     He  lived  and  died  at  Portsmouth. 

4  «Hannah;  b.  Jan.  24,  1720;  m.  Jos.  Atkinson  of  New- 
bury  Jan.  23,  1744;  d.  about  1791. 

5.  17John;  b.  Jan.  16,  1721-2;  d.  about  1787;  m. 

Of  "Richard,  the  second  of  these  children,  CAPT.  NATHAN 
HALE  was  the  son.  As  the  children  of  the  rest  were  therefore 
his  cousins, — and  as  some  of  them  are  alluded  to  in  his  corre 
spondence,  we  add  their  names,— and  the  dates  of  their  birth. 

Mrs.  M Joanna  Gerrish  and  Capt.  Stephen  Gerrish  had  issue 

GEN.  V.  1.  igHenry  Gerrish;  b.  1742  ;  (m.  1777— he  had 
seven  children.) 

2.  19Jenny  ;  m. Ames;  (m.  1777— she  had  two  chil 
dren.) 

3.  20Samuel  Gerrish;  b.  1748;  (m.  1777— he  had  two  chil 
dren.)     Probably  this  was  Col.  Samuel  Gerrish,  cashiered  for 
conduct  unworthy  an  officer  at  Bunker's  Hill,  and  Sewall's  Pt., 
Aug.  19,  1775  ; — a  sentence  pronounced  by  the  J.  advocate  "far 
too  severe."     When  the  battle  was  fought   neither  he  nor  his 
officers  were  commissioned. 

4.  21Enoch   Gerrish;  b.  1750;   (m.    1777— he  had   two  chil 
dren.  ) 

5.  -2 Gerrish  (a  Son,)  b.  1756  ;  d.  Aug.  24,  1777. 

"Richard  Hale  ;  born  in  Newburyport  Feb.  28,  1717  ;  removed 

to  Coventry,  Connecticut ; — where  he  lived,  and  died  June   1 , 
1802.     He  married  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Joseph  Strong  Esq., 


GENEALOGY.  191 

of  that  place,  on  the  17th  of  May,  1746.  She  died  April  21, 
1767.  He  married  again,  "  the  widow  Adams  "  of  Canterbury, 
Ct.,  by  whom  he  had  no  issue.  The  children  of  the  first  mar 
riage  were 

GEX.  V.     1.  23Samuel;  b.  May  25,  1747  ;  d.  Apr.  17, 1824  ; 
without  issue. 

2.  24John;  b.  Oct.  21,  1748;  d.  Dec.  22,  1802;  without  issue. 

3.  ^Joseph;  b.  Mar.  12, 1750;  d.  Apr.  29,  1784. 

4.  ^Elizabeth;  b.  Jan.  1,  1752;  d.  Oct.  31, 1813. 

5.  ^Enoch;  b.  Oct.  28,  1753;  d.  Jan.  4,  1837. 

6.  28NATHAN;  b.  June  6,  1755;    executed  at  New  York 
Sept.  22,  1776. 

7.  ^Richard;  b.  Feb.  20,  1757;  d.  Feb.,  1793. 

8.  ^Billy;  b.  Apr.  20,    1759;  m.  Booker,  Jan.   19, 

1785;  d.  Sept.  7,  1785. 

9.  31David ;       )  (  d.  Feb.  10,  1822. 

[b.  Dec.  14-15;  1761,} 

10.  ^Jonathan  ;  )  (  d.  Dec.  21,  1761. 

11.  ^Joanna;  b.  March  19,  1764;  d.  Apr.  22,  1838. 

12.  34Susanna;  b.  Feb.  1,  1766;  d.  March,  1766. 
15Samuel  Hale  of  Portsmouth  ;  b.  Aug.  24,  1718 ;  gr.  H.  C. 

1740 ;  d.  July,  1807.  He  taught  the  Grammar  School  at  Ports 
mouth  for  many  years,  served  in  the  old  French  war,  and  was 
at  one  time  Judge  of  the  Common  Pleas  Court.  He  married 
Mary,  daughter  of  Thomas  Wright  of  Portsmouth.  Their 
children  were 

GEN.  V.     1.  ^Samuel,  of  Barrington,  b.  1758;  d.  Apr.  28, 
1828.     His  sons  were  Samuel  B.  and  John  P.  of  Portsmouth  ; — 


192  APPENDIX. 

of  the  last  of  whom  Hon.  John  P.  Hale,  of  the  U.  S.  Senate, 
is  the  son. 

2.  36Thomas  Wright,  of  Barrington;  b.  1760. 

3.  37John;  b.  1764;  tutor  at  Harvard  College  from  1781  to 
1786;  d.  1791. 

4.  ^William;  b.  Aug.  6,  1765;  m.  Lydia  Rollins  Apr.  30, 
1794;  d.  Nov.  8,  1848,  at  Dover,  N.  H.,  where  he  had  re 
sided  ; — leaving  five  living  children.     He  represented  the  State 
in  Congress  six  years, — and  was  often  a  member  of  the  State 
Legislature. 

i6Hannah  Hale ;  b.  January  24,  1720;  m.  Joseph  Atkinson 
of  Newbury,  Jan.  23,  1744.  They  lived  at  Boscawen,  N.  H., 
Avhere  she  died,  about  1791.  They  had  issue 

GEN.  V.     1.  39Samuel  Atkinson. 

2.  40Simeon  Atkinson. 

3.  41  Susanna  Chadwick. 

4.  42Hannah  Atkinson. 

5.  43Sarah  Atkinson. 

17.  John  Hale;  b.  Jan.  16,  1721-22.     He  lived  at  Glouces 
ter,  (Cape  Ann,)  Mass.,  and  died  about  1787.     He  had  issue 
GEN.  V.     1.  44Samuel  (of  York.) 

2.  45John. 

3.  46Benjamin. 

4.  47Ebenezer. 

5.  48Jane. 

6.  49Sally. 

7.  50Hannah. 

In  these  lists  of  the  fifth  Generation,  between  the  names  num- 


GENEALOGY.  193 

bered  18  and  50,  are  all  the  cousins  of  NATHAX  HALE;  and, 
under  his  father's  family,  his  brothers  and  sisters.  He  died  un 
married.  The  following  lists  give  the  names  of  the  children  of 
his  brothers  and  sisters. 

23Samuel  Hale ;  oldest  son  of  Dea.  Richard  Hale ;  lived  at 
Coventry,  and  died  without  issue,  Apr.  17,  1824. 

24Maj.  John  Hale;  second  son  of  Dea.  Richard  Hale;  b. 
Oct.  21,  1748;  m.  Sarah  Adams,  at  Coventry,  Dec.  19,  1771, 
dau.  of  his  father's  second  wife.  They  lived  at  Coventry,  where 
he  died,  Dec.  22,  1802,  without  issue.  His  death  was  sudden. 
His  widow,  eager  to  carry  out  what  she  thought  would  have 
been  his  intentions,  bequeathed  £1000  to  Trustees,  as  a  fund, 
the  income  of  which  was  to  be  used  for  the  support  of  young 
men  preparing  for  Missionary  service,— and  in  part  for  found 
ing  and  supporting  the  Hale  Library  in  Coventry,  to  be  used 
by  the  ministers  of  Coventry  and  the  neighboring  towns.  She 
died  Nov.,  1803,  in  less  than  one  year  after  him. 

*Lieut.  Joseph  Hale;  third  son  of  Dea.  R.  Hale;  b.  Mar. 
12,  1750  ;  was  with  the  army  near  Boston,  and,  it  is  believed 
to  the  close  of  the  war.  He  served  both  in  Knowlton's  and 
Webb's  regiments.  Soon  after  Ins  brother  Nathan's  death,  he 
was  in  the  battle  of  White  Plains,  and  a  ball  passed  through 
.is  clothes.  Subsequently  he  was  for  a  long  time  stationed  at 
Sew  London,  where  lie  became  acquainted  with  Rebeckah  Har 
ris,  daughter  of  Judge  Joseph  Harris  of  that  place.  They 
were  married  Oct.  21,  1778.  After  the  close  of  his  service  he 
settled  in  Coventry;— but  his  constitution,  which  was  naturally 

IT 


194  APPENDIX. 

very  strong,  M'as  broken,  and  he  fell  into  a  decline,  and  died 
April  30,  1784,  leaving  four  children — viz  : 

GEN.  VI.  1.  51Elizabeth;  b.  Sept.  29,  1779;  m.  Nov., 
1801,  Zebadiah  Abbot  of  Wilton,  N.  H.  They  had  four  sons 
and  five  daughters. 

2.  52Rebeckah;  b.  Jan.  9,  1781;  m.  Oct.,  1799,  Dea.  Ezra 
Abbot  of  Wilton,  N.  H.     They  had  a  large  family  of  children, 
of  whom  three,  Joseph  Hale  Abbot,  Ezra  Abbot,  and  Abiel 
Abbot,  graduated  at  Brown  College. 

3.  53Mary  Hale;  b.  Nov.  23,   1782;  m.  in  1809,  Rev.  Lev! 
Nelson  of  Lisbon,  Ct.     They  have  no  issue. 

4.  "Sarah  Hale;  b.  Nov.  27,  1783;  died  June  27,  1784. 
26Elizabeth  Hale;  oldest  dau.  of  Dea.  R.  Hale;  b.  Jan.  1, 

1752;  was  married  Dec.  30,  1773,  to  Dr.  Samuel  Rose,  a  Sur 
geon  in  the  army  of  the  Revolution.  He  was  son  of  Dr.  Rose 
of  Coventry.  He  died  in  the  winter  of  1800-1.  Their  chil 
dren  were 

GEN.  VI.  1.  56Capt<  Joseph  Rogc.  b  gept  17>  1774.  m 
Milly  Sweatland ;— settled  in  N.  Coventry  as  a  blacksmith.  He 
died  about  1835,  leaving  several  children. 

2.  5GNathan  Hale  Rose;  b.  Nov.  18,  1776;  grew  up  on  the 
old  homestead  of  his  grandfather.  He  settled  on  the  farm  pre 
viously  occupied  by  his  uncle  Richard.  He  married  1st,  Eunice 
Talcott,  daughter  of  Dea.  Talcott  of  N.  Coventry.  She  died 
after  a  few  years,  leaving  a  daughter  who  died  young.  He 

manned  2nd,  the  widow  Perkins  of  Lisbon,  Ct.,  by 

whom  he  had  three  sons  and  one  daughter. 


GENEALOGY.  195 

3.  57Fanny  Rose;  b.  Jan.  4,  1779;  m.  Dec.,  1799,  Sandford 
Hunt  of  N.  Coventry;  and  died  Feb.  6,  1845 — "an  excellent 
woman."  They  settled  in  Batavia,  N.  Y.  Of  their  family  is 
Hon.  "Washington  Hunt  of  New  York, — and  Lt.  Hunt  of  the 
U.  S.  army. 

After  the  death  of  Dr.  Samuel  Rose,  his  widow,  Mrs.  Eliza 
beth  Rose,  married  John  Taylor  of  Coventry.  She  died  Oct. 
31,  1813.  Their  children  were 

1.  ^Elizabeth   Taylor;  m.   Nathaniel   Hubbard,  of  Vemon, 
and  afterwards  of  Manchester,  Ct. 

2.  59David  Taylor ;  manned  and  died  in  N.  York — without 
issue. 

^Enoch  Hale ;  fourth  son  of  Deacon  R.  Hale ;  b.  Oct.  28, 
1753;  entered  Yale  College  with  his  brother  Nathan  1769;  gr. 
1773  ;  studied  Theology,  and  on  the  28th  of  Sept.,  1779,  was 
ordained  as  minister  of  Westhampton,  Mass.,  where  he  died 
Jan.  14,  1837,  after  an  energetic  and  useful  ministry  of  more 
than  fifty-seven  years.  He  was  deeply  attached  to  his  brother 
Nathan,  and  profoundly  affected  by  his  fate.  He  married  Sept. 
30,  1781,  Miss  Octavia  Throop  of  Bozrah,  Conn.,dau.  of  Rev. 
Mr.  Throop  of  that  place.  She  died  Aug.  18,  1839.  Their 
children  were 

GEN.  VI.  1.  60Sally  Hale;  b.  Aug.  2,  1782;  m.  Elisha 
B.  Clapp  of  Westhampton,  Nov.  27,  1800;  d.  Feb.  7,  1838, 
leaving  seven  children. 

2.  61Nathan  Hale;  b.  Aug.  16,  1784;  m.  Sarah  Preston 
Everett  of  Boston,  Sept.  5,  1816. 


196  APPENDIX. 

3.  02Melissa  Hale;    b.  Feb.  26,   1786;  m.   Sept.   27,   1809, 
Henry  Me  Call  of  Lebanon,  Ct.     They  have  eight  children. 

4.  ^Octavia  Hale;    b.  May   13,   1788;   ra.  Dec.   19,    1811, 
William  Hooker   of  Westfield,  Mass.     Of  their  four  children 
three  are  living. 

5.  64Enoch  Hale;  b.  Jan.   19,   1790;  m.  1st,  Sept.  6,  1813, 
Almira  Hooker;  2nd,  May,   1822,   Sarah  Hooker;  3rd,  May, 
1829,  Jane  Murdock  ;  d.  Nov.  12,   1848,  without  issue.     He 
studied  chemistry  and  medicine,  at  Yale  College,  and  at  the 
Howard  Medical  School,  and  took  his   degree  of  M.    D.  at 
Cambridge,  Aug.  20,  1813.     He  practiced  with  distinguished 
success  for  a  few  years  in  Gardner,  Mass.,  and  for  the  rest  of 
his  life  in  Boston.     A  memoir  of  him,  by  Dr.  Walter  Channing, 
was  printed  after  his  death. 

6.  65Richard  Hale  ;  b.  July  2,  1792 ;  m.  Dec.  28,  1815,  Lydia 
Rust,  who  died  Jan.  10,  1837.     He  d.  in  1839. 

7.  66Betsey  Hale ;  b.  June  2,  1794;  m.  July  2,  1818,  Levi 
Burt  of  Westhampton.     They  have  had  seven  children. 

8.  67Sybilla  Hale  ;  b.    Sept.   3,   1797;  m.    1819,  Richardson 
Hall.     Of  their  nine  children  seven  are  living. 

-SNATHAN  HALE,  the  subject  of  the  preceding  memoir,  died 
without  issue,  as  already  stated. 

29Richard  Hale ;  sixth  son  of  Deacon  Richard  Hale  ;  b.  Feb. 
20,1757;  m.  Mar.  16,  1786,  Mary  Wright  of  Coventry;  he 
died  Feb.,  1793,  at  St.  Eustatia  in  the  W.  Indies.  His  health 
had  failed  him, — and  he  had  taken  a  voyage  in  hope  of  recovery. 
They  had  issue 


GENEALOGY.  197 

GEN.  VI.  1.  ^Mary  Hale;  b.  July  6,  1787;  d.  Dee.  10, 
1791. 

2.  C9Laura  Hale;  b.  Aug.  30,   1789;  in.  her  cousin  David 
Hale,  then  of  Boston;  (No.  72,  post.) 

3.  70Mary;  b.  Jan.  25,  1791 ;  d.  Oct.  2,  1793. 

After  the  death  of  Richard  Hale,  his  widow  married  Nathan 
Adams  of  Canterbury,  Conn.,  son  of  her  father-in-law's  second 
wife.  They  had  no  issue.  She  died  in  1820. 

30Billy  Hale  ;  seventh  son  of  Deacon  Richard  Hale  ;  b.  Apr. 
23,  1759  ;  m.  Jan.  19,  1784,  Hannali  Barker  of  Franklin.  He 
died  of  consumption  in  1785, — leaving  one  son. 

GEN.  VI.     1.  71Billy;  died  in  early  life. 

31David  Hale  ;  eighth  son  of  Deacon  Richard  Hale  ;  b.  Dec. 
14,  1761  ;  graduated  at  Yale  College,  1785  ;— settled  as  a  min 
ister  in  Lisbon,  Ct.  He  m.  May  19,  1790,  Lydia  Austin,  b. 
Dec.  9,  1764;  daughter  of  Samuel  Austin  of  New  Haven.  In 
1804,  in  poor  health,  he  was  dismissed  from  the  church  in  Lis 
bon,  and  removed  to  Coventry,  where  he  became  a  Deacon  of 
the  church  in  1806.  He  was  also  Representative  of  the  town, 
and  Justice  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas.  He  died  Feb.  10, 
1822.  His  widow  died  April  28,  1849.  They  had  issue  one 
child,  viz  : 

GEN.  VI.  1.  r2David  Hale;  b.  Apr.  25,  1791  ;  m.  1st,  his 
cousin  Laura  Hale,  (No.  69,  above,)  Jan.  18,  1815.  She  died 
July  25,  1824.  He  m.  2nd,  Aug.  22,  1825,  Lucy  S.  Turner  of 
Boston. 

:3Joanna;  second  daughter  of  Deacon  Richard  Hale;  b. 
March  19,1764;  m.  Jan.  22,  1784,  Dr.  Nathan  Howard  of 

IT* 


198  APPENDIX. 

Coventry.  He  died  Apr.  21,  1838,  at  the  age  of  77  years,  and 
she  the  next  day.  They  had  9  children,  all  of  whom  died  in 
early  childhood  except, 

GEN.  VI.  1.  73John  Howard ;  b.  Nov.  10,  1784;  m.  Lucy 
Ripley,  dau.  of  Judge  Ripley  of  Coventry  ;  d.  March  30,  1813. 
Their  sons  are  Chauncey,  John,  and  Ripley  Howard. 

2.  74Nathan  Howard;  b.  March  20,  1795, — unmarried. 

Of  the  families  of  those  of  Capt.  Nathan  Halc's  nephews 
who  bore  his  name,  we  can  give  the  following  memoranda : 

61Nathan  Hale  ;  1st  son  of  >27Rev.  Enoch  Hale  ;  b.  Aug.  16, 
1784;  gr.  Williams  College,  1804,  LL.  D.,  Harvard  Univ. 
1853.  He  has  conducted  for  more  than  forty  years  the  Boston 
Daily  Advertiser.  The  active  labors  of  his  life  have  been 
largely  devoted  to  the  Internal  Improvements  of  various  States 
in  America.  He  married,  Sept.  5,  1816,  Sarah  Preston  Everett, 
second  daughter  of  Rev.  Oliver  Everett,  minister  of  the  new 
South  Church,  Boston.  Their  children  are 

GEN.  VII.  1.  75Sarah  Everett  Hale;  b.  July  8,  1817;  d. 
May  16,  1851. 

2.  70Nathan  Hale ;  b.  Nov.    12,  1818;  gr.  Harv.  Coll.  1838. 
Co-editor  of  Boston  Daily  Advertiser. 

3.  "Lucrctia  Peabody  Hale  ;  b.  Sept.  2,  1820. 

4.  78Edward  Everett  Hale;  b.  Apr.  3,   1822;  gr.  Harvard 
College  1839;  minister  of  the  Church  of  the  Unity,  Worcester' 
Mass;  m.  Oct.  13,  1852,   Emily  Baldwin  Perkins,  b.  Nov.  22, 
1830,  daughter  of  Hon.  Thomas  C.  Perkins  of  Hartford,  Conn. 

5.  79A  son  ;  born  and  died  Apr.  3, 1824. 

6.  ^Alexander  Hale  ;  bom  June  21, 1825  ;  died  Jan.  7,  1826. 


GENEALOGY. .  199 

7.  H1Susan  Hale  ;  bora  Apr.  17,  1827  ;  died  Nov.  13,  1833. 

8.  82 Alexander;  b.  July   1,   1829;  gr.  Harv.  Coll.   1848;  a 
civil  engineer; — lost  in  Pensacola  harbor,  in   an   attempt  to 
rescue  a  shipwrecked  crew,  Aug.  22,  1850. 

9.  83Charles  ;  b.  June  7,  1831 ;  gr.  Harv.  Coll.  1850.     Co- 
editor  in  Boston  Daily  Advertiser. 

10.  "Susan  Hale;  b.  Dec.  5,  1833. 

11.  85Jane  Hale  ;  b.  Mar.  6,  1837 ;  d.  Jan.  27,  1838. 
^Richard  Hale  ;  3rd  son  of  ^Rev.  Enoch   Hale ;  b.  July  2, 

1792;  m.  Dec.  28,  1815,  Lydia  Rust.  She  d.  Jan.  10,  1837. 
He  lived  at  "VVesthampton,  and  d.  in  1839. 

Their  children  are 

GEX.  VII.  1.  8GPhiletus  C.  Hale  ;  b.  Oct.  5,  1816 ;  m.  Dec. 
19,  1839,  Nancy  H.  Bannister,  daughter  of  Jothani  and  Electa 
Bannister,  Newburyport,  Mass. 

2.  87  Augustus  E.  Hale;  b.  Aug.  18,  1818;  m.  1841,  Adalinc 
G.  Smith,  dau.  of  Abram  and  Mary  Smith,  of  Seabrook,  N.  H. 

3.  88MaryHale;  b.  Sept.  4,   1820;  m.  Rev.  Melzar  Monta 
gue — now  of  "Wisconsin. 

4.  89Laura ;  b.  Apr.  3,  1825  ;  died  at  Wcstfield,  Mass.,  April, 
1855. 

7>2David  Hale,  only  son  of  31Rev.  David  Hale ;  b.  Apr.  25, 
1791;  m.  1st,  his  cousin  Laura  Hale,  (No.  69  above,)  Jan.  18, 
1815.  She  died  July  25,  1824.  He  married  2nd,  Aug.  22, 
1825,  Lucy  S.  Turner  of  Boston.  The  beginning  of  his  active 
life  was  spent  in  Boston,  in  mercantile  occupations;  but  in 
1826  he  removed  to  New  York.  Here  he  became  the  business 


200  APPENDIX. 

partner  in  the  management  of  the  Journal  of  Commerce  news 
paper, — and  in  the  charge  of  that  Journal,  and  in  his  active  and 
earnest  efforts  in  the  establishment  of  Congregational  churches 
and  other  religious  and  charitable  enterprises,  became  widely 
known  and  highly  esteemed.  His  life,  by  Rev.  J.  P.  Thomp 
son,  was  published  in  1850.  His  children  are 

GEN.  VII.  1.  90Mary  Hale;  b.  Mar.  11,  1816;  m.  May  27, 
1839,  N.  Stickncy — now  of  Rockvillc,  Ct. 

2.  »iLydia  Hale;  b.  May  27,   1818;  m.  Apr.  23,  1838,  Dr. 
T.  T.  Devan  of  New  York ; — accompanied  him  to  Canton  as  a 
missionary;  and  died  without  issue  Oct.  18,  1846. 

3.  92Richard  Hale;  b.  May  24,  1820  ;  m.  Oct.  28,  1844,  Miss 
•Julia  Newlin. 

4.  93David  Austin  Hale;  b.  Sept.  3,  1822;  m.  Sept.  3,  1849, 
Miss  M.  I.  Simonds  of  Athol,  Mass. 

5.  94Lucy  Turner  Hale;  b.  July  9,  1826  ;  in.  May  20,  1846, 
Stephen  Couover,  Jr.,  of  New  York. 

6.  '-KLaura  Hale;  b.  Aug.   22,   1828;  m.   Dec.  21,  1848,  J. 
W.  Camp  of  New  York. 

7.  9JCharlotte  Hale  ;  born  April  6,  1832. 

8.  "'Martha  Louisa  Hale;  b.  Aug.  5,  1834  ;  d.  Jan.  8,  1836. 
In  the  next  generation,  the  Hales,  who  descend  from  Capt. 

Nathan  1  laic's  brothers,  are  in  the  following  lists. 

•"Edward  Everett  Hale;  b.  Apr.  3,  1822;  m.  Oct.  13,  1852, 
Emily  Baldwin  Perkins  of  Hartford.  They  reside  at  Worces 
ter,  Mass.,  and  have  issue 

GEN.  VIII.     '*Ellen  Day  Hale;  b.  Feb.  11,  1855. 

W'Philctus  Hale;  b.  Oct.  5,  1816;  m.  Dec.  19,  1839,  Nancy 


GENEALOGY.  201 

II.  Bannister.     They  reside  at  Mihvaukie,  Wisconsin,  and  have 
issue 

GEN.  VIII.     1.  "Edward  Augustus  Hale ;  b.  Sept.  26, 1840. 

2.  100William  Richard  Hale;  b.  Aug.   28,  1842;  d.  Feb.  6, 
1843. 

3.  i01  William  Henry  Hale  ;  b.  July  8, 1845  ;  d.  Jan.  12,  1846. 

4.  10-Mary  Bannister  Hale;  b.  July  22,  1846;  d.  June  26, 
1851. 

5.  103John  Philetus  Hale  ;  b.  Aug.  23,  1850. 

6.  104Louise  Randall  Hale  ;  b.  July  9,  1853. 

87Augustus  Hale;  b.  Aug.  18,  1818;  m.  1841,  Adaline  G. 
Smith.  They  reside  in  Westhampton,  Mass.,  and  have  issue 

GEN.  VIII.  1.  105Laura  Anna  Hale ;  b.  August  12,  1842; 
d.  Mar.  13,  1843. 

2.  106Frank  Augustus  Hale;  b.  Jan.  28,  1844. 

3.  107Eugene  Turner  Hale;  b.  May  22,  1846. 

4.  108George  Wellington  Hale;  b.  Sept.  18,  1849. 

5.  109Isabella  Eloise  Hale;  b.  May  28,  1853. 

^Richard  Hale;  b.  May  24,    1820;  m.  Oct.  28,  1844,  Miss 
Julia  Newlin.     They  reside  in  NCAV  York,  and  have  issue 
GEN.  VIII.     110Louisa  Newlin  Hale  ;  b.  July  22,  1845. 

2.  mLydia  Devan  Hale ;  b.  Sept.  7,  1846. 

3.  11>2David  Hale;  b.  Mar.  7,  1849;  d.  Jan.  28,  1853. 
93David  Austin  Hale  ;  b.  Sept.  3,  1822;  m.  Sept.  3, 1849,  Miss 

M.  I.  Simonds.     They  reside  in  New  York. "  Their  only  child 
was 

GEN.  VIII.  "3 William  Nelson  Hale;  b.  June  20,  1850; 
d.  July  15,  1855. 


202 


APPENDIX. 


This  brings  the  list  of  Hales  of  Kicharcl  Male's  family  up  to 
the  present  time.  It  would  have  been  agreeable  to  have  ex 
tended  it  farther  by  inserting  the  names  of  all  the  descendants 
of  this  venerable  man,  of  whatever  name.  But  this  would  have 
required  more  space  than  is  at  our  command ;  while  we  should 
have  assumed  a  duty  which  will  be  gratefully  performed,  we 
doubt  not,  by  the  genealogists  of  the  respective  families  whose 
names  these  cousins  bear. 


B. 

Page  28. 

SKETCH  OF  MRS.  LAWRENCE. 

THE  following  sketch  of  the  appearance,  mind,  and  manners 
of  Mrs.  Lawrence — from  the  pen  of  a  highly  intelligent  lady, 
one  of  her  grand-daughters,  who  long  lived  in  her  society  and 
home — will  be  found  very  interesting.  It  is  in  no  respect  exag 
gerated,  as  we  learn  from  various  sources — but,  on  the  other 
hand,  is  accurate  and  just.  Though  communicated  to  us  in  the 
form  of  a  note,  and  not  designed  for  publication,  we  cannot 
forbear  the  pleasure  of  presenting  it  to  our  Readers  here. 
Speaking  of  her  grandmother,  the  writer  thus  proceeds  : 

"  In  person  she  was  rather  below  the  middle  height,  with  a 
full,  round  figure — rather  petite.  She  possessed  a  mild,  amiable 
countenance,  in  which  was  reflected  that  intellectual  superiority 
which  distinguished  her  even  in  the  days  of  Dwight,  Hopkins, 
and  Barlow,  in  Hartford — men  who  could  appreciate  her,  who 
delighted  in  her  wit  and  worth,  and  who,  with  a  coterie  of  others 
of  that  period  who  are  still  in  remembrance,  considered  her  one 
of  the  brightest  ornaments  of  their  society. 


204  APPENDIX. 

"  A  fair,  fresh  complexion,  obtained  in  her  early  country 
life— bright,  intelligent  hazel  eyes,  and  hair  of  a  jetty  black 
ness — will  give  you  some  idea  of  her  looks — the  crowning  glory 
of  which  was  the  forehead,  that  surpassed  in  beauty  any  I  ever 
saw,  and  was  the  admiration  of  my  maturer  years.  I  portray 
hcr,  witli  the  exception  of  the  hair,  as  she  appeared  to  me  in 
her  eighty-eighth  year.  I  never  tired  of  gazing  on  her  youthful 
complexion — upon  her  eyes,  which  retained  their  natural  lustre 
unimpaired,  and  enabled  her  to  read  without  any  artificial  aid — 
and  upon  her  hand  and  arm,  which,  though  shrunken  some 
what  from  age,  must,  in  her  younger  days,  have  been  a  fit 
study  for  a  sculptor. 

"  Her  character  was  everything  that  was  lovely.  A  lady  who 
had  known  her  many  years,  writing  to  me  after  her  death, 
says— 'Never  shall  I  forget  her  unceasing  kindness  to  me,  and 
her  noble  and  generous  disposition.  From  my  first  acquaint 
ance  with  her,  and  amidst  all  the  varied  trials  through  which 
she  was  called  to  pass,  I  had  ever  occasion  to  admire  the  calm 
and  beautiful  Christian  spirit  she  uniformly  exhibited.  To  you 
I  will  say  it,  I  never  knew  so  faultless  a  character— so  gentle, 
so  kind.  That  meek  expression,  and  that  affectionate  eye,  arc 
as  present  to  my  recollection  now,  as  though  I  had  seen  them 
but  yesterday.' 

"Such  is  the  language  of  one  who  had  known  her  long  and 
well,  and  whose  testimony  would  be  considered  more  impartial 
than  that  of  one,  who,  like  myself,  had  been  the  constant  recipi 
ent  of  her  unceasing  kindness  and  affection." 


c. 

Page  49. 
MALE'S   DIARY. 

THE  following  is  the  Diary  of  Captain  Nathan  Hale,  to 
which  reference  is  made  in  the  text — and  in  the  precise  shape 
in  which  it  was  written  by  him.  It  has  no  pretension  to  any 
formality  of  plan,  or  elegance  of  composition,  but  is  a  succinct, 
often  extremely  abbreviated  statement  of  events  and  experi 
ences  in  his  life,  chiefly  from  the  time  he  left  New  London  with 
his  military  company,  until,  with  the  army  from  around  Boston, 
he  marched  for  New  York.  A  few  pages  are  torn  from  the 
Camp  Book  which  contains  it — two  or  three  from  the  beginning 
of  the  Diary,  and  one  containing  the  entries  of  two  days  in 
November.  With  this  exception,  and  a  break  also  in  the  Diary 
from  September  the  thirtieth  to  October  sixth,  and  again  upon 
the  sixteenth  of  October,  the  entries  are  regular  and  uninter 
rupted  from  September  twenty-third,  1775,  to  December  the 
thirty-first.  They  begin  again  January  twenty-fourth,  1776, 

18 


206  APPENDIX. 

and  run  over  seven  days.  Two  more  in  February,  and  four 
after  Hale  reached  New  York,  complete  the  series  of  his  memo 
randa.  The  facts  they  contain  are,  many  of  them,  of  historical 
value.  Even  the  little  personal  experiences  and  employments 
to  which  they  allude,  otherwise  unimportant,  will  grow  into 
some  consequence  with  the  Reader,  when  associated  with  the 
patriotic  Martyr-Spy.  They  will  all  be  found  interesting,  par 
ticularly  so  when  we  reflect  that,  with  a  few  letters,  they  form 
everything  that  is  left  us  from  the  pen  of  one,  who,  had  he  lived 
to  mature  his  youthful  powers,  to  nurse  his  intellect,  and  polish 
his  tastes,  would  probably  have  been  a  bright  ornament  either 
to  the  pulpit  or  the  bar,  or  have  graced  perhaps  the  paths  of 
literature  as  much  as  he  graced  the  path  of  patriotism. 

"  [Sep.  23rd.]  Cannon,  40  or  50,  heard  from  the  last  stage  to 
the  present.  Marched  3^  O'Cl — and  arrived  [at]  "YVatermans, 
(a  private  house  and  entertainment  good)  after  a  stop  or  two. 
6£  O'CL,  6  m.— tarried  all  night. 

"  24lh.  Mch'd  6  O'Cl.,  and  at  8  O'CL,  reach  M  Olney's,  4  m.— 
10  O'CL,  mch'd  from  Olney's  2  miles,  and  reached  Providence, 
but  made  no  stop.  Having  march'd  thro'  the  town  with  music, 
and  mde  a  sht  stp  at  the  hither  part,  in  the  road,  came  4  miles 
further  to  Slacks  in  Rehoboth,  where  we  dined.*  4  O'CL, 


*"  Received,  Rehoboth,  Sept.  24.  1775,  of  Nathan  Hale  Lieut1  of  May 
Latimer's  Company,  five  shillings  and  ten  pence  lawful  money  for  the  use 
of  my  house  and  other  trouble  by  sd  Company. 

ELIPHALET  SLACK." 

Several  similar  receipts,  in  the  handwriting  of  Hale,  save  the  signature, 
enabling  us  to  trace  his  positions,  are  found  in  his  Camp-Book. 


KALE'S   DIARY.  207 

mch'd  from  Slacks  6  m.,  and  reach'd  Daggctts  in  Attleborougli, 
and  put  up,  depositing  our  arms  in  the  mtt*  House.  Soon  after 
our  arrival  join'd  by  the  Majr,  who  set  out  from  home  the  nt 
bef . 

"  25th.  March'd  soon  after  sunrise — and  came  very  fast  to  Du- 
pree's  in  Wrentham,  9  m.  to  Breakfast.  Arv'd  9  O'Cl.  11  set 
off,  and  l£  P.  M.  arv'd  [at]  Hidden's,  Walpole,  and  there  din'd 
and  tarried  till  4£  O'Cl.,  and  then  march'd  to  Dedham,  7  m., 
and  put  up. 

"  Tuesday  26th.  Mch'd  5  m.  before  Breakfast  to .  For 

Dinner  went  4^  m.  to  Parkers,  which  is  within  a  mile  and  a 
half  from  Camp.  At  our  arrival  in  Camp  found  that  200  men 
had  been  draughted  for  a  fishing  party.  Pitched  our  tents  for 
the  present  in  Roxbury,  a  little  before  sunset. 

"Wednesday  27th.  Went  to  some  of  our  lower  works.  12 
or  15  of  the  fishing  party  return,  and  bring  11  Cattle  and  2 
horses. 

"  Thursday  28th.     Fishing  party  returned. 

"Friday  29th.  Mch'd  for  Cambridge.  Arv'd  3  O'Cl.,  and 
encamped  on  the  foot  of  Winter  hill,  near  General  Sullivan's  3 
Corn'"  Majrs  Cl  Shipmans,  Bostwick. 

"  Sat.  30th.  Considerable  firing  upon  Roxbury  side  in  the 
forenoon,  and  some  P.  M.  No  damage  done  as  we  hear. 
Join'd  this  day  by  Cpts  Perril  and  Levnwth  about  4  O'Cl. 

"Octo.  6th  1775.  Near  100  Can8  fired  at  Roxbury  from  the 
Enemy.  Shot  off  a  man's  arm,  and  kill'd  one  Cow. 

"  7th.     Some  firing  from  Boston  neck — nil  mat. 


208  APPENDIX. 

"  8th.  Sab.  A.  M.  rainy — no  meet".  Mr  Bird  pr.  Water- 
town  P.  M.  Went  to  meet?  on  the  hill.  Mr  Smith  pr. 

"9th,  Monday.  Morn"  clear  and  pleas1,  but  cold.  Exers' 
men  5  O'Cl.  1.  h. 

"  Tuesday  10th.  Went  to  Roxbury — dined  with  Doctr  Wol- 
cott  at  General  Spencers  Lodgs.  P.  M.  rode  down  to  Dorches 
ter,  with  a  view  to  go  on  upon  the  point ;  but  Col1  Fellows  told 
us  he  could  give  us  no  leave,  as  we  had  been  informed  in  town. 
Return'd  to  Camp  6  O'Cl. 

"Wed.  11th.  Bror  Joseph  here  in  the  morning — went  to 
Cam*6  12  O'CL— sent  a  letter  to  Bror  Enoch  by  Sam1  Turner. 
Inform'd  by  Jo?'1  that  he  was  to  be  examin'd  to  day  for  — . 
Saw  Royal  Flynt — prd  to  write  him.  Recda  letter  from  Gil- 
Salt1  wh  infj  ye  Schooner  by  St  Johns  taken — all  ye  men  killd, 
and  yl  8,000  bush'3  of  wheat  had  been  taken  and  carried  to 
Norwich  fm  Christ.  Champlin's  ship  run  agrd  at  Stonins"1. 
Recd  letter  9th  from  Gil.  Salt.  Do  9lh  fm  John  Hallam— 8th  E. 
Hale.  A  heavy  thunder  shoAV*  in  ye  evens. 

"  Thurs.  12th.  Wrote  6  letters  to  N.  L.  Saw  C1  Sage.  Infmd 
Montreal  held  by  Montgomery — St  Johns  offd  to  capitulate,  but 
refusing  to  deliver  guns,  Johnson's  terms  were  refused ;  but 
must  soon  surrender.  P.  M.  Went  into  Cambridge.  Took 
the  Cambge  Paper — pd  3  coppers. 

"Friday  13th.  Inf">d  by  Ll  Col1  that  Col1  Webb  last  night 
gave  orders  that  Field  Officers  Lieutenants  should  wear  yellow 
Ribbons — put  in  one  accordingly.  Walk'1  to  Misk  for  clothes. 


KALE'S   DIARY.  209 

% 

"Sat.  14th.  Mounted  picket  guard.  Govr  Griswold  at 
ploughd  hill.  Rumours  of  25,000  troops  from  England. 

"Sab.  15th.  Mr  Bird  pr.  P.  M.  After  meeting  walk'd  to 
Mistick. 

"  Tuesday  17th.     A  Serg1  Major  deserted  to  the  Regulars. 

"Wed.  18th.  A  Private  deserted  to  the  enemy.  Last  night 
a  cannon  split  in  our  floats  batt'ry  when  fir?  upon  B.  Com 
mon — 1  of  our  men  kill'd — another  said  to  be  mortally  wound 
ed — 6  or  7  more  wounded.  Recd  Letters — G.  Salstontall, 
16'h— J.  Hallam,  14th— E.  Hallam,  15th— E.  Adams,  16th.  In 
Mr.  Sals"  Letter  rec'1  News  of  the  publishment  of  Thomas  Poole 
and  Betsey  Adams  on  the  15th. 

"Thursday  19lh.  Wrote  4  letters— to  Messrs  G.  Sals1,  and 
John  Hallam,  and  to  Misses  Bet.  Adams  and  Hallam.  3  peo 
ple  inhabitants  of  Boston  sd  to  have  escaped  on  Roxy  side  last 
night.  Several  guns  were  fired  at  them  which  were  heard  here  at 
Winter  hill.  This  morning  one  of  our  horses  wandd  down  near 
the  enemy's  lines,  but  they  durst  not  venture  over  to  take  him 
on  account  of  Rifle"  placed  at  ys  old  Chim^  ready  to  fire  upon 
them.  A  sick  man  at  Temples  found  to  have  the  small  pox. 

"  Friday  20th.  Wet  and  rainy.  News  from  Roxbury  yl  9 
persons,  5  of  them  inhabitants,  and  4  of  them  Sailors,  made 
their  escape  last  night  from  Boston  to  Dorchester  Point,  who 
bring  accounts  yl  10,000  Hanoverian  £  5,000  Scotch  and  Irish 
Troops  are  hourly  expected  in  Boston.  Cpt.  Perrit  retd  sunset 
from  Connecticut.  News  yl  Col.  Josh  Trumbull  Comm>'  Gen1 
was  at  the  point  of  Death. 

18* 


210  APPENDIX. 

"  Sat.  21  •'.  Constant  rain  &  for  ye  most  part  hard  for  ye 
whole  day.  A  letter  communicated  to  the  off"  of  ye  Reg1  f m 
G.  Washgt"  to  Col1  Webb  with  orders  to  see  what  Off™  will 
extend  ye  term  of  thr  service  fm  6th  DeceimV  to  1st  Jan*  —Col. 
Webb  issu'd  ordr"  for  removing  a  man  who  was  yesterday  dis 
covered  to  have  ye  small  pox  from  Temple's  house  to  ye  hospi 
tal — but  the  off™  remonstrating,  suspended  his  orders.  Sun 
set  clear. 

"  Sab.  22"1.  Mounted  piquet  guard — had  charge  of  the  ad 
vance  Piquet.  Nil.  mem.  Mistick  Comm7  rcfus'd  to  deliver 
provsns  to  Compies  which  had  had  nothing  for  ye  day.  On 
which  Cpt.  Tuttle  and  60  or  70  men  went,  and  as  it  hapnd  terror 
instead  of  force  obtain'd  the  provisions.  On  Piquet  heard 
Regrs  at  work  with  pick  axes.  One  of  our  Gentries  heard  their 
G.  Rounds  give  the  Countersign — which  was  Hamilton.  Left 
P.  guard,  and  retd  to  CP  at  sunrise  on  the — 

"23rdMon.  10  O'CL,  went  to  Cambridge  wth  Fid  Com"* 
officers  to  Gen1  Putnam,  to  let  him  know  the  state  of  the  Reg1, 
and  yl  it  was  thro'  ill  usage  upon  the  Score  of  Provisions  yl 
thr  -wld  not  extend  their  term  of  service  to  the  1st  of  Ja.nJ  1776. 
Din'd  at  Browns — drk  1  bottle  wine — walk'd  about  street — call'd 
at  Josh.  Woodbridge's  on  my  way — and  retd  home  about  6  O'Cl. 
Recd  confirmation  of  day  before  yesterday's  report  yt  Cpt.  Coit 
mde  an  Admiral.  Recd  lett.  Ed.  Hallam,  15th. 

"24%  Tuesday.  Some  rain.  Wl  to  Mistick  with  clothes,  to 
be  washed  (viz.  4  Shirts,  Do  Necks,  5  pair  Stockings,  1  Nap 
kin,  1  Table  Cloth,  1  Pillow  case,  2  Linen  and  1  Silk  Handker 
chief).  P.  M.  Got  Brick  and  Clay  for  Chimney.  Winter  Hill 


KALE'S   DIARY.  211 

came  down  to  wrestle,  wh  view  to  find  out  our  best  for  a  wrest 
ling  match  to  which  this  hill  was  stumped  by  Prospect,  to  be 
decided  on  Thursday  ensus.  Evening  Prayers  omitted  for 
wrestling. 

"25th,  Wednesday — no  letters. 

"26th,  Thursday.  Grand  Wrestle  on  Prospect  Hill — no 
wager  laid. 

"Friday,  27th.  Messrs  John  Hallam  and  David  Mumford 
arvd. 

"  Sat.  28th.     Somewhat  rainy. 

"  Sab.  29th.  Went  to  meeting  in  the  barn — one  exercise. 
After  meeting  walk'd  with  Cpt  Hull  and  Mr  Hallam  to  Mistick. 

"  Sat.  28t!l.  At  night  Serg1  of  the  enemy's  guard  desei'ted 
to  us. 

"Monday,  30th.  Some  dispute  with  the  Subalterns,  about 
Cpt  Hull  and  me  acting  as  Captains.  The  Col.  and  Lieut  Col. 
full  in  it  that  we  ought  to  act  in  that  capacity.  Brigade  Majr 
and  Gen1  Lee  of  the  same  opinion.  Presented  a  petition  to 
Gen1  Washington  for  Cpt  Hull  and  myself,  requesting  the  pay 
of  Cpts — refused.  Mr  Gurley  here  at  Dinr.  P.  M.  Went 
into  Cambridge  with  Mr.  Mumford. 

"Tuesday,  31st.  Wrote  letters  to  Father,  and  brother  John 
and  Enoch.  P.  M.  Went  to  Cambridge — dr.  wine  &c  at  Gen1 
Putnams. 

"Wednesday,  Novem.  1st.  Mounted  Piquet  guard — nil 
mem.  Rec'd  3  Letters  frm  S.  Belden,  G.  Salt.,  and  B.  Hallam. 
The  lsl  inf  "d  he  had  no  Scarlet  Coating  &c.,  and  also  reminded 
me  of  20s  due  to  him  by  way  of  change  of  a  40s  Bill  rec'd  for 


212  APPENDIX. 

Schooling  (forgot).  2»d  infrad  that  (as  per  Philadelphia  paper) 
Peyton  Randolph  died  of  an  Apoplexy  22lld  ult.  3rd  inf"ld 
Sheriff  Christopher  is  dead. 

"  Wed.  1st .  Came  off  from  Piquet  Guard  10  O'Cl.  11  do  wl 
to  Cam?6  with  Cpt  Hull — dined  at  Gen1  Putnam's  with  Mr. 
Learned.  Inf ind  Mr  Howe  died  at  Hartford  2  months  ago — not 
heard  of  before.  Col1  Parson's  Reg4  under  arms  to  suppress  ye 
mutinous  proceedings  of  Gen1  Spencer's  Reg1 — one  man  hurt  in 
the  neck  by  a  bayonet  (done  yesterday. )  Retnd  to  Camp  6  O'Cl. 

"  Thursday  2nd.  Rain  constantly,  sometimes  hard.  Receiv'd 
a  flying  Report  that  the  Congress  had  declared  independency. 

"  Friday  3nl.     Nil  mem. 

"Sat.  4th.  Mr  Learned  and  myself  din'd  at  Col1  Halls. 
Deac"  Kingsbury's  son  visited  me.  P.  M.  Cpt  Hull  and  my 
self  wl  to  Prospect  Hill. 

"Sunday  5th.  A.  M.  Mr  Learned  pr.  John  13,  19 — excel- 
lentissime.  A  little  after  twelve  a  considerable  number  of  can 
non  from  the  Enemy,  in  memory  of  the  day.  Din'd  with  Cpt 
Hull  at  Geni  Putnams.  Rec'd  news  of  the  taking  of  Fort 
Chamblee,  with  80  odd  soldiers,  about  100  women  &  children, 
upwards  of  100  barrels  of  Powder,  more  than  200  barrels  of 
pork,  40  do  of  flour,  2  Mortars  and  some  cannon.  The  women, 
wives  to  Officers  in  St  Johns,  were  brought  to  St  Johns,  and 
there  their  Husbands  permitted  to  come  out,  and  after  spending 
some  time  with  them,  return.  Also  News  of  a  vessel  taken  by 
one  of  our  privateers  fr.  Phi-1  to  B-n,  wh  104  pipes  of  wine— 
another  from  the  West  Indies  with  the  produce  of  that  Country. 
Rec'd  a  letter  from  bro.  Enoch— Nov.  1.  Coventry  pr.  Daniel 


KALE'S   DIARY.  213 

Robertson,  who  is  to  make  me  a  visit  tomorrow.  The  paper, 
in  which  the  Officers  sent  in  their  names  for  new  commissions 

return'd  for  more  Subalterns.  Ens"  Pond  and put  down 

thr  names.  Those  who  put  down  their  names  the  first  offer, 
[are]  Col8  Webb  and  Hall,  Capts  Hoyt,  Tuttle,  Shipman,  Bost- 
wick,  Pefrit,  Levenworth,  Hull  and  Hale — Subs  Catland. 

"Monday,  6lh.  Mounted  Piquet  guard  in  ye  place  of  Cpt 
Levenworth.  A  Rifleman  deserted  to  ye  Regulars.  Some  wet. 
Day  chiefly  spent  in  Jabber  and  Chequers.  Cast  an  eye  upon 
Young's  Mem',  belong"  to  Col.  Varnum — a  very  good  book. 
Comp1  of  ye  bad  condition  of  ye  lower  Piquet  by  Majr  Cutler 
&c.  It  is  of  the  utmost  importance  that  an  Officer  should  be 
anxious  to  know  his  duty,  but  of  greater  that  he  shd  carefully 
perform  what  he  does  know.  The  present  irregular  state  of  the 
army  is  owing  to  a  capital  neglect  in  both  of  these. 

"  Tuesday,  7th.  Left  Piquet  10  O'Clock.  InfJ  Majr  Brooks 
apptd  for  this  Reg' — new  establishment — wh.  occasd  much  unea 
siness  among  the  Cpts.  Rain  pretty  hard  most  of  the  day. 
Spent  most  of  it  in  the  Majr,  my  own  and  other  tents  in  conver 
sation — some  chequers — Studied  ye  best  method  of  forming  a 
Reg1  for  a  review,  of  arraying  ye  Companies,  also  of  marching- 
round  ye  reviewing  Officer.  A  man  ought  never  to  lose  a  mo 
ments  time.  If  he  put  off  a  thing  from  one  minute  to  the  next, 
his  reluctance  is  but  increased. 

"  Wednesday  8th.  Cleaned  my  gun — pld  some  football,  and 
some  chequers.  Some  People  came  out  of  Boston  via  Roxby. 
Rec'd  N.  of  Cpt  Coit's  taking  two  prizes,  with  Cattle,  poultry, 


214  APPENDIX. 

hay,  rum,  Mine,  &c.  &c. — also  verbal  accounts  of  the  taking  of 
St  Johns. 

"  Thursday,  9th.  1  O'Cl.  P.  M.  An  alarm.  The  enemy 
landed  at  Lechmeres  Point,  to  take  off  cattle.  Our  works  were 
immediately  all  mann'd,  and  a  detachment  sent  to  receive  them, 
who  were  obliged,  it  being  high  water,  to  wade  through  water 
nearly  waist  high.  While  the  Enemy  were  landing,  we  gave 
them  a  constant  Cannonade  from  Prospect  Hill.  Our  party 
having  got  on  to  the  point,  marched  in  two  columns,  one  on 
each  side  of  ye  hill,  with  a  view  to  surround  ye  enemy,  but  upon 
the  first  appearance  of  them,  they  made  their  boats  as  fast  as 
possible.  While  our  men  were  marching  on  to  yc  point,  they 
were  exposed  to  a  hot  fire  from  a  ship  in  the  bay,  and  a  floating 
Battery — also  after  they  had  passed  the  hill.  A  few  shot  were 
fired  from  Bunker's  Hill.  The  damage  on  our  side  is  the  loss 
of  one  Rifleman  taken,  and  3  men  wounded,  one  badly,  and  it 
is  thought  10  or  more  cattle  carried  off.  The  Rifleman  taken 
was  drunk  in  a  tent,  in  which  he  and  the  one  who  received  the 
worst  wound  were  placed  to  take  care  of  the  Cattle,  Horses  &c., 
and  give  notice  in  case  the  enemy  should  make  an  attempt 
upon  them.  The  tent  they  were  in  was  taken.  What  the  loss 
was  on  the  side  of  the  enemy  we  cannot  yet  determine.  At 
night  met  with  the  Capt8  of  ye  new  establishment  at  Gen1  Sulli- 
vans  to  nominate  Subalterns.  Lieut1  Bourbank  of  Col1  Doolit- 
tle's  Reg1  made  my  1st  Ll — Serg1  Chapman  2nd,  &  Serg1  Hurl- 
burt  Ens". 

"Friday,  10th.  Went  upon  the  hill  to  see  my  new  Lieut1 
Bourbank,  and  found  him  to  be  no  very  great  things.  On  my 
return  found  that  my  Br.  &  Joseph  Strong  had  been  here  and 


215 


enquired  for  me.  Immediately  after  dinner  went  to  Cambr.  to 
see  them,  but  was  too  late.  Went  to  head  quarters — saw  Gen1 
Sullivan,  and  gave  him  a  description  of  my  new  Lt.  He  said 
lie  would  make  enquiry  concerning  him.  On  my  return  fo.  the 
abo.  Lt  at  my  tent,  agrble  to  my  invitation.  After  much  round 
about  talk  persuaded  him  to  go  with  me  to  the  Gen1,  to  desire 
to  be  excused  from  the  service.  The  Gen1  not  being  at  home, 
deferr'd  it  till  another  time. 

"Saturday,  11th.  Some  dispute  about  the  arrangement  of 
Subs. — but  not  peaceably  settled. 

"Sunday  12lh.  This  morning  early  a  meeting  of  Capts., 
upon  the  above  matter,  and  not  ended  until  near  noon.  No 
meeting  A.  M.  P.  M.  Mr  Bird  pr. 

"  Monday,  13th.  Our  people  began  to  dig  turf  under  Cobble 
Hill.  Inlistments  delivered  out.  At  night  a  man  of  our  Reg1 
attempted  to  desert  to  the  Reg"  ,  but  was  taken. 

"  Tuesday,  14th.  Some  uneasiness  about  Subs.  P.  M. 
Went  to  Cambr.  nil  mem.  Gen1  orders  of  to  day  contained  an 
account  of  the  reduction  of  St  Johns.  Dig?  sods  under  Cobble 
Hill  continued." 

Here  follow,  copied  by  Kale's  hand,  long  and  minute  "  Di 
rections  for  the  Guards" — twenty-one  Articles  in  number — after 
which  his  Diary  thus  continues  : 

"Wednesday,  15th.  Mounted  Main  guard.  Heard  read  the 
articles  of  surrender  of  St  Johns.  Likewise  an  account  of  the 
repulse  of  our  piratical  enemies  at  Hampton  in  Virginia,  with 
the  loss  of  a  number  of  men — (in  a  handbill).  Three  deserters 
made  their  escape  from  Boston  to  Roxbury  last  night.  Two 


216  APPENDIX. 

prisoners  were  taken  this  afternoon  in  the  orchard  below 
Plough'd  Hill,  who,  with  some  others,  were  getting  apples. 
They  bring  accounts  that  it  was  reported  in  Boston  that  our 
army  at  St  Johns  was  entirely  cut  off.  That  last  week  when 
they  attempted  to  take  our  cattle  at  Sewels  point  they  kill'd  50 
or  60  of  our  men,  wounded  as  many  more,  and  had  not  a  man 
either  killed  or  wounded — whereas  in  truth  we  had  only  one 
that  was  much  wounded,  and  he  is  in  a  way  to  recover.  Rec'd 
a  letter  from  J.  Hallam. 

"Thursday,  161'1.  Releiv'd  from  Piquet,  8£  O'Cl.  Con 
fined  James  Brown  of  Cpt  Hubbel's  company  for  leaving  the 
guard,  which  he  did  yesterday  towards  night,  and  did  not  return 
until  4  O'Cl.  this  morning,  when  he  was  taken  up  by  the  centi- 
nel  at  the  door  of  Temple's  House.  As  it  appeared  he  was 
somewhat  disguised  with  liquor,  I  ordered  him  confined  and 
reported. 

"Thursday  16th.  Wrote  two  letters — 1  to  J.  Hallam,  and  1 
to  G.  Salt1.  It  being  Thanksgiving  in  Connecticut,  the  Capts 
and  officers  in  nomination  for  the  new  army  had  an  entertain 
ment  at  T's  house  provided  by  Capt.  Whitney's  Sutler.  They 
were  somewhat  merry,  and  inlisted  some  soldiers.  I  was  not 
present.  About  10  or  11  O'Cl.  at  night  Orders  came  for  rein 
forcing  the  Piquet  with  10  men  from  a  Comy. 

"Friday,  17"'.  Ilec'd  an  order  from  Colonel  Hall  for  taking 
up  at  the  continental  Store  4  pr  Breeches,  6  Do  Stock?8,  5  Do 
Shoes,  1  Shirt,  1  buff  Cap,  1  pr  Indian  Stocks6,  5£  yjBof 
Coats,— all  which  I  got  but  the  Shirt,  Indian  Stock?*,  l£  yd 
Coat"?,  and  shoes,  which  are  to  come  tomorrow  morning.  Cpt. 


KALES   DIARY.  217 

Hull  wUl  some  of  his  soldiers  went  w11'  me  to  Cainb*1'.  Return'd 
after  dark.  Stop'd  at  Gen1  Lees  to  see  about  Furl*  for  men  in- 
listed,  who  ordered  the  gen1  orders  for  the  day  to  be  read,  by 
which  Furloughs  arc  to  be  given  by  Colls  only,  and  not  more 
than  50  at  a  time  must  have  them  out  of  a  Reg1.  Gen1  orders 
further  contained  that  the  Congress  had  seen  fit  to  raise  the  pay 
of  the  officers  from  what  they  were — and  that  a  Cpt.  upon  the 
new  establishment  is  to  receive  26§  Dollars  per  month — a  1st 
and  2nd  Lieut1  18  Dollars,  and  an  Ens"  13^  Dollars. 

"Saturday,  18th.  Obtained  an  order  from  Colo.  Webb  upon 
the  Q.  M.  G.  for  things  for  the  soldiers.  Went  for  them  after 
noon — returned  a  little  after  Sunset. 

"Sabbath  Day,  19'Ul.  Mr  Bird  pr.— one  service  only,  begin 
ning  after  12  O'Cl.  Text  Esther  8th  6.  For  how  can  I  endure 
to  see  the  evil  that  shall  come  unto  my  people,  or  how  can  I 
endure  to  see  the  destruction  of  my  kindred  ?  The  discourse 
very  good-«the  same  as  preached  to  Gen1  Wooster,  his  officers 
and  Soldiers,  at  Newhaven,  and  which  was  again  preached  at 
Cambridge  a  Sabbath  or  two  ago.  Now  preached  as  a  farewell 
discourse.  Robert  Latimer,  the  Majrs  son,  went  to  Roxbury  to 
day  on  his  way  home.  The  Maj1  who  went  there  to  day,  and 
Lt  Hurlburt,  and  Robert  Latimer  F,  .who  went  yesterday,  re 
turned  this  even?  and  bl  accls  that  the  Asia  Man  of  War,  sta 
tioned  at  New  York,  was  taken  by  a  Schooner  armed  with  Spears 
&c.,  which  at  first  appeared  to  be  going  out  of  the  Harbour,  and 
was  bro1  too  by  ys  Asia,  and  instead  of  coming  under  her  stern, 
just  as  she  come  up  shot  along  side.  The  men  who  were  before 

19 


218  APPENDIX. 

€onceal'd,  immediately  sprung  up  with  their  lances  &c.,  and 
went  at  it  with  such  vigor  that  they  soon  made  themselves  mas 
ters  of  the  ship.  The  kill'd  and  wounded  not  known.  This 
account  not  credited.  Sergeant  Prentis  thought  to  be  dying 
about  12  Meridian — some  better,  if  any  alterat"  this  evening. 

"Monday  20"'.  Obtain'd  furloughs  for  5  men,  viz.,  Isaac 
Hammon,  Jabez  Minard,  Christopher  Beebe,  John  Holmes,  and 
William  Hatch,  each  for  20  Days.  Mounted  m"  Guard — 4  pris 
oners — nil  mem.,  until  10  O'Cl,  when  an  alarm  from  Cambr.  and 
Prospect  Hill,  occasioned  our  turning  out.  Slept  little  or  none. 

"Tuesday,  21".  Releiv'd by  Cpt  Hoyt.  Serg1  Prentis  very 
low.  Colo,  and  some  Cpts  went  to  Cambr.  to  a  Court  M.,  to 
Cpt  Hubbel's  Trial,  adjourn'd  from  yesterday  to  day,  Even 
ing  spent  in  conversation. 

"Wednesday,  22nd.  Sergt  Prentis  died  about  12  O'Cl.  last 
night.  Tried  to  obtain  a  furlough  to  go  to  Cape  Ann,  and  keep 
Thanksgiving,  but  could  not  succeed.  Being  at  Gen1  Sullivans, 
heard  Gen1  Green  read  a  letter  from  a  member  of  the  Congress, 
expressing  wonder  at  the  Backwardness  of  the  Off rs  and  Sol 
diers  to  tarry  the  winter — likewise  informing  that  the  men  inlis- 
ted  fast  in  Pennsylvania  and  ye  Jersics  for  30s.  per  month .  Some 
hints  dropt  as  if  there  was  to  be  a  change  of  the  " 

Here  a  leaf  of  the  Camp-Book  is  gone,  and  the  Diary  recom 
mences  as  follows  : 

"  Saturday,  25th.  Last  night  2  sheep  kill'd  belonging  to  the 
En"1''.  This  morning  considerable  firing  between  the  Centries. 
A  Rifleman  got  a  Dog  from  the  Regulars.  Col.  Varnum 
offer'd  a  Guinea  for  him,  the  [same]  that  Geni  Lee  had  offer'd. 


219 


10  O'Cl,  A.  M.  went  to  Cobble  Hill  to  view.  Another 
brought  to  the  Ferry  way — two  there  now.  P.  M.  Went  to 
Cambr.  Ret'1  Sunset.  *  *  *  Heard  further  that 
200  or  300  poor  people  had  been  set  on  shore  last  night  by  the 
Regulars— the  place  not  known,  but  sd  to  be  not  more  than  6  or 
8  miles  from  hence.  Cannon  were  heard  this  forenoon,  seeming 
to  be  off  in  the  bay,  and  at  some  distance.  Observ'd  in  coming 
from  Cambr.  a  number  of  Gabines  at  Gen1  Lee's,  said  to  be  for 
the  purpose  of  fortifying  upon  Lechmeres  point. 

"  26th,  Sunday.  William  Hatch  of  Major  Latimcr's  Co.  died 
last  night,  having  been  confin'd  about  one  week — He  has  the 
whole  time  been  in  ,  and  great  part  of  it  out  of  his  Senses. 
His  distemper  Avas  not  really  known.  He  was  buried  this 
afternoon — few  people  attended  his  funeral.  Reported  that  the 
people  were  set  ashore  at  Chelsea,  and  bring  accts  that  the 
Troops  in  Boston  had  orders  to  make  an  attack  on  Plough'd 
Hill,  when  we  first  began  our  works  there,  but  the  Officers,  a 
number  of  them,  went  to  Gen1  Howe,  and  offered  to  give  up 
their  Commissions,  absolutely  refusing  to  come  out  and  be 
butchered  by  the  Americans.  Mounted  Main  Guard  this  morn 
ing.  Snowy.  Lt  Chapman  rec'd  Recruiting  ordre ,  and  set  out 
home,  proposing  to  go  as  far  as  Roxb?  to  day. 

"  27°',  Monday.  Nil.  mem.  Evening  went  to  Gen1  Lee's, 
whom  I  found  very  much  cast  down  at  the  discouraging  pros 
pect  of  supplying  the  army  with  troops. 

u  28l1',  Tuesday.  Promised  the  men  if  thev  would  tarry 
another  month,  they  should  have  my  wages  for  that  time. 
Gen'  Sullivan  return 'd.  Sent  order  to  Fraser  Q.  M.,  to  send 


220  APPENDIX. 

us  some  wood.  Went  to  Cambr. — could  not  be  served  at  the 
store.  Rcttirn'd — observ'd  a  greater  number  of  Gabines  at 
Gen1  Lee's.  Inf!  at  Cambr.  yl  Gen1  Putnam's  Reg'  mostly 
concluded  to  tarry  another  month.  (This  a  lie.) 

"  29th,  Wednesday.  The  Reg1  drawn  up  before  Gen1  Sulli 
van's.  After  lie  had  made  them  a  most  excellent  speech,  desired 
them  to  signify  their  minds,  whether  they  would  tarry  till  the  1st 
of  January.  Very  few  fell  out,  but  some  gave  in  their  names  af 
terwards.  Read  News  of  the  taking  of  a  vessel  loaded  w1'1  ordi 
nance  and  stores. 

"  30"',  Thursday.  Obtain'd  a  furlough  for  Ens"  Hurlburt  for 
20  Days.  Sent  no  letters  to  day  on  account  of  the  hurry  of 
business. 

[December.]  "  I-1,  Friday.  Wl  to  Cambridge.  A  Number  of 
men,  about  20  in  the  whole,  confined  for  attempting  to  go  home. 
Our  Reg1  this  morning,  by  means  of  General  Lee  universally 
consented  to  tarry  until  the  Militia  came  in,  and  by  far  the 
greater  part  agreed  to  stay  until  the  first  of  Jan. 

"2d,  Saturday.  Orders  rec'd  to  the  Reg1  that  no  one  Officer 
or  Soldier  should  go  beyond  Drum  call  from  his  alarm  post. 
Went  to  Mistick  with  Gen1  Sullivan's  order  on  Mr  Eraser  for 
things  wanted  by  the  Soldiers  who  are  to  tarry  till  the  T'  of 
January,  but  found  he  had  none. 

"  3U,  Sunday.  Wet  weather.  No  pr.  Evg  got  an  ordr  from 
B.  (Jr.  Sullivan  upon  Colo.  Mifflin  for  the  above  mentioned  arti 
cles,  not  to  be  had  at  Erasers. 

"41'1,  Monday.  Went  to  Cambridge  to  draw  the  above  arti 
cles,  but  the  order  was  not  accepted.  Rec'd  News  yl  several 


221 


prizes  had  been  taken  by  our  Privateers,  among  which  was  a 
Vessel  from  Scotland,  ballast'd  with  coal — the  rest  of  her  cargo 
dry  goods.  Cpt  Bulkley  and  Mr  Chamberlain,  from  Colches 
ter,  with  cheese.  Purchased  107  Ibs  at  6p.  per  lb.,  for  which  I 
gave  an  order  upon  Majr  Latimer. 

"5th,  Tuesday.  Rec'd  News  of  the  Death  of  John  Bowers, 
Gunner  in  Cpt  Adam's  Privateer,  formerly  of  Maj1  Latimers 
Company. 

"  6th,  Wednesday.  Upon  main  Guard.  Nil.  mem.  Rec'd 
some  letters  per  Post.  Col.  Doolittle,  Officer  of  the  Day,  inf d 
that  Col.  Arnold  had  arrived  at  point  Levi  near  Quebec. 

"  7th,  Thursday.     Went  to  Cambridge  to  draw  things. 

"  8th,  Friday.  Did  some  writing.  Went  P.  M.  to  draw 
money  for  our  expenses  on  the  road  from  N.  L.  to  Roxbury, 
but  was  disappointed. 

"  9th,  Nil  mem.     Saturday. 

"10Ul.  Struck  our  tents,  and  the  men  chiefly  marched  off. 
Some  few  remaining  came  into  my  room.  At  night  Charles 
Brown,  Daniel  Talbot,  and  Wm  Carver  returned  from  Priva 
teering.  Assisted  Majr  Latimer  in  making  out  his  Pay  Roll. 
Somewhat  unwell  in  the  evening. 

"11th,  Monday.  Finish'd  the  pay  roll,  and  settled  some 
accounts — about  12  O'Cl.  Majr  Latimer  set  out  home.  1  or 
more  Companies  came  in  to  day  for  our  relief. 

"  12th,  Tuesday.  A  little  unwell  yesterday  and  to  day. 
Some  better  this  evening. 

"  13th,  Wednesday.  On  Main  Guard.  Rec'd  and  wrote 
some  letters.  Read  the  History  of  Philip. 

19* 


222  APPENDIX. 

"14th,  .Thursday.  Went  to  Cambridge.  Visited  Majr 
Brooks — found  him  unwell  with  an  ague.  Capt.  Hull  taken  vio 
lently  ill  yesterday — remains  very  bad  to  day — has  a  high  fever. 

"  15'1',  Friday.     Nil  mem. 

"16th,  Sat.  Our  people  began  the  covered  way  to  Lech- 
mere's  Point. 

"  17th,  Sunday.  Went  to  Mistick  to  meeting.  Some  firing 
on  our  people  at  Lcchmere's  point. 

"18th,  Monday.  Went  to  Cambridge  to  draw  things.  The 
Reg1  paraded  this  morning  to  be  formed  into  two  companies, 
that  the  rest  of  the  officers  might  go  home.  Heard  in  Cambridge 
that  Cpt  Manly  had  taken  another  prize,  with  the  Govr  of  one  of 
the  Carolinas  friendly  to  us,  and  the  Hon.  Matthews  Es<;[r  Memb. 
of  the  Continental  Congress,  whom  Govr  Dunmorc  had  taken 
and  sent  for  Boston. 

"  19lh,  Tuesday.  Went  to  Cobble  Hill.  A  shell  and  a  shot 
from  Bunker's  Hill.  The  shell  breaking  in  the  air,  one  piece 
fell  and  touched  a  man's  hat,  but  did  no  harm.  Works  upon 
Leclimerc's  Point  continued. 

"  20Ul,  Wed.  Went  to  Roxbury  for  money  left  for  me  by 
Majr  Latimer  with  Gen1  Spencer,  who  refused  to  let  me  have 
it  without  security.  Draw'd  some  things  from  the  Store. 
I/  Catlin  and  Ens"  Whittlesey  set  out  home  on  foot. 

"21st,  Thursday.  Wrote  a  number  of  letters.  Went  to 
Cambridge  to  carry  them,  where  I  found  Mr  Hempstead  had 
taken  up  my  money  at  Gen1  Spencer's,  and  given  his  receipt. 
I  took  it  of  Hempstead,  giving  my  receipt.  The  sum  was 
£36,  10s,  Od.  *  *  * 


223 


"  22'1,  Friday.     Sonic  Shot  from  the  Enemy. 

"23d,  Saturday.  Tried  to  draw  1  month's  advance  pay  for 
my  Company,  but  found  I  could  not  have  it  till  Monday  next. 
Upon  which  borrowed  76  Dollars  of  Cpt  Leveuworth,  giving 
him  an  order  on  Col1  Webb  for  the  same  as  soon  as  my  advance 
pay  for  January  should  be  drawn.  3f  O'Cl,  P.  M.  Set  out  from 
Cambridge  on  my  way  home.  At  Watertown  took  the  wrong 
road,  and  went  two  miles  directly  out  of  the  way — which  had 
to  travel  right  back  again.  And  after  travelling  about  11  miles 
put  up  at  Hammons,  Newtown,  about  7  O'Cl.  Entertainment 
pretty  good. 

"  24th,  Sunday.  Left  H's  6£  O'Cl.  Went  8  miles  to  Stray- 
tons,  passing  by  Jackson's  at  3  miles.  Breakfasted  at  Stray- 
tons.  The  snow  which  began  before  we  set  out  this  morning 
increases,  and  becomes  burthensome.  From  Stray  tons  9  miles 
to  Stones — where  we  eat  Biscuit  and  drank  cyder.  7  miles  to 
Jones — dined — arv'd  3^  o'cl.  From  there  2  m.,  and  forgot  some 
things,  and  went  back — then  return'd.  To  Dr.  Reeds  that 
night.  Pass'd  Amadons  and  Keiths  3  m.  Good  houses.  With 
in  ^  m.  of  Dr.  Reeds  miss'd  my  road,  and  went  2  m.  directly 
out  of  my  way,  and  right  backtravelPd — in  the  whole  to  day  41 
miles.  The  weather  stormy,  and  the  snow  for  the  most  part 
ancle  deep. 

"  25th,  Monday.  From  Dr.  Reeds  8  O'Cl.  Came  1  or  2  in., 
and  got  horses.  4  in.  to  Hills,  and  breakfasted — ordinary.  8 
m,  to  Jacobs,  and  din'd.  Dismissal  our  horses.  6  O'Cl.  arv'd 
Keyes  llm.,  and  put  up.  Good  entertainment. 

"  26th,  Tuesday.     6  O'Cl.  A.  M.     Fr.  K.  6  m.,  to  Kindals— 


224  APPENDIX. 

breakfasted.  10  on  to  Southwards—  din'd.  Settled  accts  with  Ll 
Sage  —  dd  h»i  16  dollars  for  paying  Soldiers  1  month's  advance 
pay.  Arv'd  home  a  little  after  sunset.  One  heel  string  lame. 

"  271'1,  Wed.  Heel  lame.  W  to  Br.  Roses.  Aunt  Rob*. 
Mr  Hun10"  and  Cpt  Robs. 

"28th,  Thursday.     Unwell  —  tarried  at  home. 

"  29th,  Friday.  Went  to  see  G.  C.  Lyman.  Call'd  at  Dr. 
Kingsbury's  and  Mr.  Strongs. 


1776.  24lh,  Wednesday.  Set  out  from  my  Fathers 
for  the  Camp  on  horseback,  at  7£  O'Cl.  At  11  O'Cl.  arv'd  at 
Perkin's,  by  Ashford  Meeting  House,  where  left  the  horses. 
12|  O'Cl.  mchd  —  3^  arv'd  Grosvenors,  8  m.,  and  4£  at  Grosve- 
nor's,  Pomfret  2  m.,  and  put  up.  Here  met  9  Soldrs  fr.  Wind- 
ham. 

"  25lh,  Thursday.  6$  O'Cl.  inch'1  from  G.,  and  came  to  Forbs 
7  m.,  but  another  Co.  liavg  engaged  breakfast  there,  we  were 
obliged  to  pass  on  to  Jacobs  (fromGrov.  18'")  —  After  Breakfast 
went  8  m.  to  Hills,  and  drk  some  bad  cyder  in  a  worse  tavern. 
7  O'Cl.  arv'd  Deacon  Reeds,  5  m.,  Uxbridge,  and  ^  comy  put  up, 
myself  wth  remainder  passed  on  to  Woods,  2  m. 

"  26ii>,  Friday.  7  O'Cl.  fr.  Woods  4  m.  to  Almadons  Mcndo- 
reld  —  breakfasted.  1  7  m.  to  Clark's,  Medfield,  and  put  up,  —  Co. 
put  up  5  m.  back. 

«2711',  Saturday.  Breakfasted  at  Clark's,  10  O'Cl.  Mchd, 
about  1  1  O'Cl  —  arv'd  at  Ellis'  5^,  where  drank  a  glass  of  brandy, 
and  proceeded  on  5£  to  Whitings.  Arv'd  2  O'Cl.  Arv'd  at 
Barkers  in  Jamaica  Plains,  but  being  refused  entertainment, 


225 


were  obliged  to  betake  ourselves  to  the  Punch  Bowl — where- 
leaving  the  men,  11  m.,  went  to  Roxb>".  Saw  Gen1  Spencer, 
who  tho't  it  best  to  have  the  men  there,  as  the  Regiment  were 
expected  there  on  Monday  or  Tuesday.  Indians  at  Gen1  Spen 
cers.  Retd  to  Winter  Hill. 

"28th,  Sunday.  Went  to  Roxby.,  to  find  barracks  for  11 
men  that  came  with  me,  but  not  finding  good  ones  ret'd  to  Tem 
ple's  House,  where  the  men  were  arv'd  before  me.  In  the  eve 
ning  went  to  pay  a  last  visit  to  General  Sullivan,  with  Col* 
Webb  and  the  Cpts  of  the  Reg1. 

"  29lh,  Monday.     Nil  mem. 

"  30th,  Tuesday.     Removed  from  Winter  Hill  to  Roxb> . 
****** 

"Feby  4th,  1776.     Sunday. 

"  Feb.  14th,  1776.  Wednesday.  Last  night  a  party  of  Regu 
lars  made  an  attempt  upon  Dorchester,  landing  with  a  very- 
considerable  body  of  men,  taking  6  of  our  guard,  dispersing  the 
rest,  and  burning  two  or  three  houses.  The  Guard  house  was 
set  on  fire,  but  extinguished. 

****** 

"[New  York.]  July  23J,  1776.  Report  in  town  of  the 
arv'l  of  twenty  S.  of  the  Line  in  St  Lawce  River.  Doctr  Wol- 
cott  and  Guy  Richds  Junr  here  frm  N.  L.  Rec'd  E.  fr.  G.  Sal- 
stontall. 

"Aug.  21sl.  Heavy  Storm  at  Night.  Much  and  heavy 
Thunder.  Capt.  Van  Wyke,  and  a  Lieut,  and  Ens.  of  Colo  Me 
Dougall's  Reg1  kill'd  by  a  Shock.  Likewise  one  man  in  town, 
belonging  to  a  Militia  Reg1  of  Connecticut.  The  Storm  contin- 


226  APPENDIX. 

ued  for  two  or  three  hours,  for  the  greatest  part  of  which  time 
[there]  was  a  perpetual  Lightning,  and  the  sharpest  I  ever 
knew. 

"  22d,  Thursday.  The  enemy  landed  some  troops  down  at 
the  Narrows  on  Long  Island. 

"  23d,  Friday.  Enemy  landed  more  Troops — News  that 
they  had  marched  up  and  taken  Station  near  Flatbush,  their 
advce  Gds.  being  on  this  side  near  the  Woods — that  some  of  our 
Riflemen  attacked  and  drove  them  back  from  their  post,  burnt  2 
stacks  of  hay,  and  it  was  thought  kill'd  some  of  them — this 
about  12  O'Clock  at  Night.  Our  troops  attacked  them  at  their 
station  near  Flatb.,  routed  and  drove  them  back  l£  mile." 


D. 

Page  148. 
HON.  II.  J.  RAYMOND'S  REMARKS  ox  HALE. 

IN  admirable  consonance  with  our  own  views,  and  in  most 
eloquent  tribute  also  to  the  memory  of  Hale,  Hon.  H.  J.  RAY 
MOND  of  New  York — in  his  Address,  October  seventh,  1853,  at 
the  Dedication  of  the  Monument  erected  at  Tarrytown  to  com 
memorate  the  spot  where  Major  Andre  was  captured — says  : 

"  At  an  earlier  stage  of  the  Revolution,  NATHAN  HALE,  Cap 
tain  in  the  American  army,  which  he  had  entered,  abandoning 
brilliant  prospects  of  professional  distinction,  for  the  sole  pur 
pose  of  defending  the  liberties  of  his  country, — gifted,  educated, 
ambitious, — the  equal  of  ANDRE  in  talent,  in  worth,  in  amiable 
manners,  and  in  every  manly  quality,  and  his  superior  in  that 
final  test  of  character, — the  motives  by  which  his  acts  were 
prompted,  and  his  life  was  guided, — laid  aside  every  consideration 
personal  to  himself,  and  entered  upon  a  service  of  infinite  haz 
ard  to  life  and  honor,  because  WASHINGTON  deemed  it  im 
portant  to  the  sacred  cause  to  which  both  had  been  sacredlv  set 


228  APPENDIX. 

•apart.  Like  ANDRE  he  was  found  in  the  hostile  camp ;  like 
him,  though  without  a  trial,  he  was  adjudged  a  spy ;  and  like 
him  he  was  condemned  to  death.  And  here  the  likeness  ends. 
No  consoling  word,  no  pitying  or  respectful  look,  cheered  the 
dark  hour  of  his  doom.  He  was  met  with  insult  at  every  turn. 
The  sacred  consolations  of  the  minister  of  God  were  denied  him  ; 
his  Bible  was  taken  from  him;  with  an  excess  of  barbarity  hard 
to  be  paralleled  in  civilized  war,  his  dying  letters  of  farewell  to 
his  mother  and  sister  were  destroyed  in  his  presence ;  and  un- 
cheered  by  sympathy,  mocked  by  brutal  power,  and  attended  on 
ly  by  that  sense  of  duty,  incorruptible,  undefilcd,  which  had  ruled 
his  life,— finding  its  fit  farewell  in  the  serene  and  sublime  regret 
that  he  "had  but  one  life  to  lose  for  his  country,"— he  went 
forth  to  meet  the  great  darkness  of  an  ignominious  death.  The 
Coving  hearts  of  his  early  companions  have  erected  a  neat  mon 
ument  to  his  memory  in  his  native  town;  but  beyond  that  little 
circle  where  stands  his  name  recorded  ?  While  the  Majesty  of 
England,  in  the  person  of  her  Sovereign,  sent  an  embassy 
across  the  sea  to  solicit  the  remains  of  ANDRE  at  the  hands  of 
his'focs,  that  they  might  be  enshrined  in  that  sepulchre  where  she 
garners  the  relics  of  her  mighty  and  renowned  sons—"  splen 
did  in  their  ashes  and  pompous  in  the  grave  "—the  children 
of  WASHINGTON  have  left  the  body  of  HALE  to  sleep  in  its 
unknown  tomb,  though  it  be  on  his  own  native  soil,  unhonored 
by  any  outward  observance,  unmarked  by  memorial  stone- 
Monody,  eulogy-monuments  of  marble  and  of  brass,  and  of 
letters  more  enduring  than  all -have,  in  his  own  land  and  in  ours, 
given  the  name  and  the  fate  of  AXDRE  to  the  sorrowing  re- 


RAYMOND    ON     HALE.  229 

membrance  of  all  time  to  come.  American  genius  lias  cele 
brated  his  praises,  has  sung  of  his  virtues  and  exalted  to  heroic 
heights  his  prayer,  manly  but  personal  to  himself,  for  choice  in 
the  manner  of  death, — and  his  dying  challenge  to  all  men  to  wit 
ness  the  courage  with  which  he  met  his  fate.  But  where,  save 
on  the  cold  page  of  history,  stands  the  record  for  HALE  ?  Where 
is  the  hymn  that  speaks  to  immortality,  and  tells  of  the  added 
brightness  and  enhanced  glory,  when  his  equal  soul  joined  its 
noble  host  ?  And  where  sleeps  the  Americanism  of  Americans, 
that  their  hearts  are  not  stirred  to  solemn  rapture  at  thought 
of  the  sublime  love  of  country  which  buoyed  him  not  alone 
'above  the  fear  of  death,'  but  far  beyond  all  thought  of  him 
self,  of  his  fate  and  his  fame,  or  of  anything  less  than  his  coun 
try* — and  which  shaped  his  dying  breath  into  the  sacred  sentence 
which  trembled  at  the  last  upon  his  unquivering  lip'? 

It  would  not,  perhaps,  befit  the  proprieties  of  this  occasion 
were  I  to  push  the  inquiry  into  the  causes  of  so  great  a  differ 
ence  in  the  treatment  which  ANDRE  received  at  the  hands  of  his 
American  captors,  whose  destruction  he  had  come,  not  to  con 
quer,  but  to  betray, — and  that  which  the  British  bestowed  upon 
NATHAN  HALE.  Much  of  it  was,  doubtless,  due  to  the  difference 
in  the  composition  of  the  opposing  armies, — the  one  of  hirelings  in 
the  service  of  power,  seeking  the  conquest  of  freemen, — the  other 
of  freemen  defending  their  liberties,  and  keenly  alive  to  the  sen 
sibilities  and  affections— the  love  of  home,  of  brethren,  of  fel 
low-men — which  alone  sustained  them  in  the  unequal  strife. 
I  have  introduced  it  now,  not  for  the  sake  of  complaint,  nor 
even  for  the  worthier  purpose  of  challenging  as  unpatriotic  and 

20 


230  APPENDIX. 

un-American,  the  habit  of  allowing  all  our  sympathy  and  all 
our  tears  to  be  engrossed  by  an  accomplished  and  unhappy  foe, 
who  failed  in  a  service  of  doubtful  morality,  undertaken  for 
the  sake  of  promotion  and  of  personal  glory,  in  oblivion  of  what 
is  due  to  one  of  a  nobler  stamp,— our  own  countryman,  who  knew 
no  object  of  love  but  his  and  our  country,  who  judged  "every 
kind  of  sen-ice  honorable,  which  was  necessary  to  the  public 
good,"  and  who  by  genius,  by  character,  by  patriotic  devotion 
and  by  misfortune,  has  paramount  claims  upon  the  love  and 
cherishing  remembrance  of  American  hearts." 


ERRATA. 

In  note  on  page  28,  for  "  Eleazer,"  read  "  Elijah  Ripley." 

On  page  152,  for  "  North"  read  "  East  Side  "—for  "  West"  read 

"  North  Side  "—and  on  page  153,  for  "  East "  read  "  South  Side," 

and  for  "  South  "  read  "  West  Side." 
On  page  168,  line  first,  for  "grand-nephews"  read  " nephews ;  " 

and  in  note  on  same  page,  for  "7?ev.  David  7fafc,"read  "David  Hale 

Esquire." 


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